Saturday, December 22, 2007
The NYSE set a record for volume in the first half hour of trading.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks jumped Friday after a better-than-expected rise in profits at Research in Motion Ltd. and on word that Merrill Lynch may have lined up a big cash infusion from a Singapore fund.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 200 points and, along with the other major indexes, posted a gain of more than 1.5 percent.
The developments seemed to allay investor fears that economic growth would succumb to tightness in the credit markets. Adding to the measure of relief some investors felt, the Federal Reserve said after the opening bell that it would continue with its special biweekly auctions for banks as long as necessary to relieve strains in the short-term debt market.
The announcements came as the New York Stock Exchange set a record for volume in the first half hour of trading during what is known as “quadruple witching.” It marks the simultaneous expiration of contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures and often leads to heavy trading near the start and end of the session.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 205.01, or 1.55 percent, to 13,450.65.
Broader stock indicators also showed strong gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 24.35, or 1.67 percent, to 1,484.47, and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 51.13, or 1.94 percent, to 2,691.99.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 2.32 billion shares compared with 1.38 billion traded Thursday.
Stocks rose for the second day after Research in Motion said late Thursday that its fiscal third-quarter profit more than doubled on strong demand for its BlackBerry smart phones. The results gave Wall Street hope that the technology sector has room to expand and that consumers and businesses are still spending.