Jesse Purves - Stock Markets jump again

Weaker dollar and Australian rate hike spur investors, with the Dow posting a triple-digit gain for the second straight day. Jesse Purves



The Dow Jones industrial average ( INDU ) rose 132 points, or 1.4%. The S&P five hundred ( SPX ) index gained 14 points, or 1.4%, and the Naz composite ( COMP ) rose 35 points, or 1.7%.



Gains were broad-based, with twenty-nine of 30 DJX stocks rising as investors piled into a variety of stocks battered in a 14 day selloff.

But that decline of just over 4% on the S&P five hundred seemed to give backers the entry point they were looking for to leap into stocks.
'I think most people believe that stocks are going to generally keep drifting higher for the following couple of months,' declared Gary Webb, boss man at Webb Financial Group. Davidson & co. 'That's what we're seeing here.'

investors also welcomed reports that Australia became the 1st major economy to lift rates since the start of the money crisis.
in the meantime, the falling buck boosted gold to an all-time high of $1,045 an oz. The feeble U.S. Currency was also good for the stocks of multi-national corporations that benefit from a weaker dollar.

A weaker-than-expected reply to a state debt auction dulled some of the shine on the rally.


7 months and counting : A rally in U.S. Stocks that began in March, petered out late Sep at the end of an otherwise upbeat 3rd quarter. In the July-September period, the DJX and S&P 500 both jumped 15%, their best quarter in ten years, while the Naz rose 15.7%, its best quarter in 6 years. But the September selloff was modest amid the wider rally that has been in place since last March. Since bottoming at a 12-year low March 9, the S&P 500 has gained 56%, and the DJX has gained 49% as of Tues.'s close. After hitting a six-year low, the Naz has gained nearly 68%.
on the go : The broad advance benefited a number of stocks and sectors.
Materials and commodities stocks surged, including Dow parts Alcoa ( AA, Fortune 500 ), DuPont ( DD, Fortune 500 ), Chevron ( CVX, Fortune 500 ) and Exxon Mobil ( XOM, Fortune 5 hundred ).

The Dow's other largest gainers were Caterpillar ( pussy, Fortune five hundred ), Hewlett-Packard ( HPQ, Fortune 500 ), IBM ( IBM, Fortune 5 hundred ), JPMorgan Chase ( JPM, Fortune five hundred ) and United Technologies ( UTX, Fortune 5 hundred ).
Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners topped losers by virtually four to one on volume of 1.23 billion shares. On the NDX, advancers topped decliners by just about 3 to one on volume of 2.42 billion shares.