NEW YORK -- A powerful rally in Southeast Asia ignited stock markets around the globe today, with the Dow Jones industrial average surging 200 points and the S&P 500 shooting above 1,000 for the first time. Dow up 201
The Dow rose 201.28 points to close at 8,107.78, its first finish above 8,000 since Dec. 9 and about 150 points shy of its best close of 8,259.31, set on Aug. 6. Today's performance was the fourth biggest point gain ever.
Advancers led decliners by a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,068 up, 970 down and 436 unchanged. NYSE volume was 723.49 million shares, the sixth heaviest tally ever and the third of more than 700 million in the past four sessions.
Other broad-market indicators also rallied after the main stock indexes in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines all soared more than 10 percent.
The S&P 500 rose 21.00 to 1,001.30, beating Thursday's record close. The NYSE composite index gained 10.09 to 520.72, its first record close for the first time since Dec. 5. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 33.52 to 1,652.88.
Secondary issues lagged the blue-chip advance. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 4.39, or about 1 percent, to 434.33. Similarly, the small-company dominated American Stock Exchange composite index gained just 2.88 to 671.30.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond, meanwhile, was off 29/32 point, or $9.06 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield rose to 5.86 percent from 5.79 percent late Friday.