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US and European markets soar

27 May 2009 07:52 (UTC +04:00)

BakÄ±. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. Stocks surged Tuesday, posting their first big win in a week after a research group said consumer sentiment rose in May to the highest level since September. Major stock indicators jumped more than 2 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which added 196 points, AP reported.

The day’s gains nudged the Standard & Poor’s 500 index back into the plus column for the year and leaves the Nasdaq composite index up 11 percent in 2009. The Dow is still down 3.5 percent.
Investors started buying enthusiastically after the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index vaulted to 54.9 from 40.8, soaring past the 42.3 that economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast.
The Dow rose 196.17, or 2.4 percent, to 8,473.49. The S&P 500 index rose 23.33, or 2.6 percent, to 910.33, and the Nasdaq rose 58.42, or 3.5 percent, to 1,750.43.
The Dow is up 29.4 percent from its 12-year low hit on March 9, but even with the recent gains it’s still 40.2 percent below its peak in October 2007.

Bond prices fell, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up to a six-month high of 3.55 percent from 3.46 percent late Friday.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Light, sweet crude rose 78 cents to settle at $62.45 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Overseas, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.1 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 1.4 percent, and France’s CAC-40 rose 1.1 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.4 percent.