Stocks Soar to New 2-Year High
By STEVEN RUSSOLILLO
WSJ
NEW YORK—U.S. stocks soared as investors applauded the size and scope of the Federal Reserve's latest effort to stimulate the sagging economy.
From stocks to bonds to gold to cotton, assets are spiking higher on the heels of the Fed's $600 billion Treasury-buying binge. But the program has one big blind spot: the jobs market. Deborah Blumberg, Kathleen Madigan and Paul Vigna report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently up 181 points, or 1.6%, to 11396 after hitting its highest intraday level since September 2008, when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. The blue-chip index earlier rose as much as 212 points, its first 200-point intraday rise since Oct. 5.
Caterpillar jumped 3.5%, Boeing rose 2.8% and Bank of America gained 2.8%, fueling the gains. Pfizer and Merck were the only Dow components trading in negative territory.
The Standard & Poor's 500-share index jumped 1.5% to 1216, led by the energy and materials sectors. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.2% to 2571.
Investors pushed stocks higher as they digested the Fed's announced plans on Wednesday to purchase an additional $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by June in a second round of quantitative easing, dubbed QE2. The central bank also will keep reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings.
(More here.)
WSJ
NEW YORK—U.S. stocks soared as investors applauded the size and scope of the Federal Reserve's latest effort to stimulate the sagging economy.
From stocks to bonds to gold to cotton, assets are spiking higher on the heels of the Fed's $600 billion Treasury-buying binge. But the program has one big blind spot: the jobs market. Deborah Blumberg, Kathleen Madigan and Paul Vigna report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently up 181 points, or 1.6%, to 11396 after hitting its highest intraday level since September 2008, when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. The blue-chip index earlier rose as much as 212 points, its first 200-point intraday rise since Oct. 5.
Caterpillar jumped 3.5%, Boeing rose 2.8% and Bank of America gained 2.8%, fueling the gains. Pfizer and Merck were the only Dow components trading in negative territory.
The Standard & Poor's 500-share index jumped 1.5% to 1216, led by the energy and materials sectors. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.2% to 2571.
Investors pushed stocks higher as they digested the Fed's announced plans on Wednesday to purchase an additional $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by June in a second round of quantitative easing, dubbed QE2. The central bank also will keep reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings.
(More here.)
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