US stocks end higher
Wall Street ended the month with a modest advance today as a turnaround in personal spending and a flurry of acquisition activity reassured investors worried about a faltering economy.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 37.30, or 0.36%, to 10,440.07.
The previous session, the Dow climbed almost 173 points, its biggest one-day leap since late April.
Broader stock indicators were also higher. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 8.60, or 0.72%, at 1,207.01, and the Nasdaq composite index surged 30.42, or 1.46 percent, to 2,120.30.
News that spending rose 0.5% in September – reversing a 0.5% August decline - came as another sign of the economy’s resilience following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Last week, the Commerce Department reported better-than-expected gross domestic product growth for the July-September quarter.
While the upbeat spending data bolstered the retail and technology sectors, Steven Goldman, chief market strategist at Weeden & Co., also linked today’s rally to a broad recovery from last week’s lows and typical end-of-the-month trading as hedge and mutual funds try to boost returns.
He also cited strong gains in the European markets.
“Basically we had market sentiment get a bit too one-sided,” Goldman said about recent volatility on Wall Street.
“Stocks were getting in place to rebound.”
