Bourse

Home page

Bourse

US, European stocks rise

17 February 2010 08:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Stocks on Wall Street surged after a three-day break as concerns eased about European governments’ debt loads and New York area manufacturing showed an improvement, National Business Review reports.

No reports on new sovereign debt problems in Europe emerged over the long weekend, in addition to a lack of reports of further tightening in China, also helped boost sentiment toward stocks and commodities.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 169.67 points, or 1.7%, higher at 10,268.81. Bank of America was the measure’s best performer, up 2.7% after it reported "significant gains" in the number of modified mortgages it handles.

Kraft Foods was the only Dow component in the red. It fell 1.3% as its fourth-quarter revenue came in slightly short of analysts’ expectations.

The S&P 500 index rose 1.8% to 1094.87 with all sectors in the black, led by energy and materials. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.4% to 2214.19.

Rallies in commodity prices sent Canadian stocks higher. The S&P/TSX composite index rose 1.0%, adding 111.80 points to 11,581.61.

European shares rose broadly with UK banking group Barclays jumping sharply after reporting a profit that exceeded analyst forecasts.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index closed 1% higher at 244.38, up for the second session in a row and for the sixth time in seven sessions.

The UK’s FTSE 100 index rose 1.5% to end at 5244.06, the German DAX index finished up 1.5% at 5592.12 and the French CAC-40 index gained 1.7% to close at 3669.04.