Festive cheer gives Wall Street a boost
US stocks rallied nearly three per cent yesterday as investors bought surging banks, homebuilders and networking companies, though low volume was seen as amplifying the market’s move.
Investors jumped on a banking sector that was already riding high, extending gains after the US Federal Reserve released new capital proposals that turned out to be less onerous than the market feared.
JP Morgan Chase & Co was up five per cent and Wells Fargo added 4.6 per cent.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 335.73 points, or 2.87 per cent, at 12,103.58. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 35.95 points, or 2.98 per cent, at 1,241.30. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 80.59 points, or 3.19 per cent, at 2,603.73.
After the market closed, shares of Oracle Corp slumped 7.7 per cent to $26.92 in extended trading. The company reported software and hardware sales that missed its own forecasts.