US: Wall Street joins global stock surge
09 Dec 2008 1:48 AM
NEW YORK, Dec 8 AFP - US shares leapt at the open on Monday, after rallies in global markets on hopes that a big stimulus planned by president-elect Barack Obama will ease the worldwide financial crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 171.64 points (1.99 per cent) to 8,807.06 in the first exchanges.
The tech-dominated Nasdaq advanced 32.02 points (2.12 per cent) to 1,541.33 and the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index added 16.36 points (1.87 per cent) to 892.43.
Wall Street has shown resilience over the past several weeks despite news of cascading job losses and other grim data.
A spark that lifted foreign markets came with Obama's announcement of a big stimulus effort to boost the US economy.
"Investors are betting that policymakers will do more to avert a severe recession," said Chris Lafakis at Economy.com.
"Investors are anticipating gains following comments over the weekend by president-elect Barack Obama that his economic stimulus would include substantial spending on the nation's transportation infrastructure."
