Investors have been clamoring for months for a bit of good news. On Thursday, they got a load of it.
The Dow Jones industrials shot up 240 points, bringing its gains over the past three days to 622 points. It was the index’s biggest three-day jump since last November.
This week’s rally got an extra dose of adrenalin after an accounting board told Congress Thursday it may recommend a let-up in accounting rules for troubled banks in three weeks.
Hope that financial institutions might finally get relief in how they value their bad assets spurred a flurry of buying on Wall Street, which accelerated when Bank of America Corp.’s CEO told reporters his bank was profitable in January and February. Citigroup Inc. triggered this week’s rally Tuesday with similar remarks.
Stocks also got a boost as retail sales figures came in better than anticipated, General Electric Co. got its credit rating cut by less than expected and General Motors Corp. said it will not need a $2 billion loan it previously requested from the government.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 239.66, or 3.5 percent, to 7,170.06. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 29.38, or 4.1 percent, to 750.74. The Nasdaq composite index gained 54.46, or 4 percent, to 1,426.10.
After a modest decline Monday and three days of buying, the Dow is up 8.2 percent so far for the week. The S&P 500 index is up 9.9 percent and the Nasdaq is up 10.2 percent.
(CBS News / Bloomberg Business News)
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7 Responses
Keep it up!
So with those who claimed that the fall of stock prices indicated the failure of President Obama’s programs now turn around and apologize and acclaim him the savior of the economy???????
Of course, there is a theory that short term (measured in days and weeks) variations in stock prices are largely random, but that takes all the fun out of it.
Buy FAS. It gives you triple the leverage on financials. My portfolio is up over 60% this week. The rally will probably still be going on overall until DOW 8000, I think. The tzibbur can follow my stock adviser for free at twitter.com/muathe.
But, it’s worth it to pay the fee and subscribe. He was right about the recent downturn before it happened, and now he called this rally a week ago.
I have lost plenty of money, though. Don’t bet your life savings – only what you can afford to lose.
akuperma,
Pass the kool-aid! This has nothing to do with the obamanation. Wait a little as he keeps pushing socialism on us and it will fall again like a brick. He doesnt care. He wants to make everyone suffer for what was done to the shchoyrim but all it is doing is taking race relations back 50 years.
not so fast, the dow is still at 7,000 when it was at 9000 when he started more than a 20% decline.
sharp up and down takes of 3-5% like this one in a few days that correct themselves are common but not downturns that keep the dow down 20% over three months.
And of course this is just part of the general downturn that started in september where the dow has almost lost 50% since. Unheard of since 1929.
Mark,
Changes in stock prices in the short term have just as much to do with the president when they go up, as when they go down, which for the most part, is nothing.
Weren’t you one of the ones who sees stock declines as proof of Obama’s failure?
Have you ever lived in a socialist country?
Obama is hardly a socialist. Socialists seize only profitable businesses. THey don’t take over failing companies and allow overpaid managers to keep their jobs. As far as economic policy goes, Obama is a typical middle of the road Democrat, most of whose advisors are Jewish liberals. We might not approve, but it is hardly the end of the world, and hardly justifies making fun of his name.
Whoa!!! Anyone who is looking at the REAL underlying economic data knows that the WORST HAS YET TO COME!!! Obamanation is not the answer…and worse yet, his advisors know it.
That is why they are desperately looking at a SECOND stimulus package. Throwing money at the problem is only a temporary “prop up”…not a solution. Just wait until the first quarter results come in…”you ain’t seen nothing yet”.