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US markets surge after Fedâ€™s decision

19 March 2009 08:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.88, or 1.2 percent, to 7,486.58.
Broader stock indicators jumped, too. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 16.23, or 2.1 percent, to 794.35, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 29.11, or 2 percent, to 1,491.22.
Stocks have risen for six out of the last seven days. Since the market rally began last week, the Dow has jumped 14.4 percent, and the S&P 500 has soared 17.4 percent.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies jumped 14.04, or 3.5 percent, to 417.63.
More than four stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 2.08 billion shares.
The Fed said Wednesday it will pump about $1 trillion into the economy, including the purchase of up to $300 billion of long-term Treasury securities over the next six months, as it works to revive the housing market and halt a punishing recession.
The Fed’s announcement accompanied its decision to keep interest rates at historically low levels.
For both the stock and bond markets, the Fed’s announcement was a welcome surprise. After the last Fed meeting in January, policy makers said they were considering buying government debt. But investors were skeptical the Fed would actually go through with it.
Meanwhile, an unexpected build in gasoline inventories helped send oil prices lower. Light, sweet crude fell $1.02 to $48.14 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Overseas, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1.4 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.2 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.3 percent.