Stock prices jumped by about 3% on reports of better than expected German business data as well as Spanish bond auction. Everyone was chasing stocks in a mad rush of pre-Christmas buying spree thinking that sky is the limit.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.9% or 337.17 points to 12,103.43. For the index it was the best day in current month. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Caterpillar, Inc. were the leading gainers.
The S&P 500 rallied 3% or 35.95 points to 1,241.30 on its best day of this month. All of the ten groups closed higher. Materials, energy and financial subsectors rose by about 4%. Individually Pulte Home Group rose by 10%. D.R. Horton Inc. and Lennar Corp. were up by more than 5%. stocks of Navistar International Corp. increased by 6.5%, Sprint Nextel Corp. jumped 9.3%. ConAgra Foods Inc. stocks rose by 4.1%. Bank of America Corp. gained 3.7% to $5.17. Red Hat Inc. stocks nose-dived by 8.9%.
The Nasdaq Composite increased by 3.2% or 80.59 points to 2,603.73. Component heavy weight Apple Inc. increased by 3.6%.
The housing data provided big surprises and regarded by traders as very good news.
