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Stocks rally on jobs reports and ECB plan
By Hibah Yousuf @CNNMoneyInvest September 6, 2012: 12:39 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A rally on Wall Street gained momentum Thursday as investors welcomed better-than-expected reports on the U.S. labor market and the European Central Bank's bond-buying plan.
The Dow Jones industrial average surged more than 200 points, or 1.8%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq shot up about 2%.
The advance was broad, with all 30 components of the Dow moving higher. Bank stocks were leading the gains on the blue-chip index with shares of Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) soaring more than 4%. About 98% of the S&P 500 was trading in positive territory.
Speaking after a meeting of top ECB officials in Frankfurt, the central bank's president, Mario Draghi, reiterated his pledge to do "whatever it takes" to preserve the euro and said the ECB is prepared to make "outright monetary transactions," or OMTs, in the secondary market for euro-area government bonds.
The move is aimed at Spain and Italy, which struggled with unsustainable borrowing costs earlier this year, but will be available to all euro nations.
Related: ECB outlines bond-buying program
"The news out of Europe is boosting the market," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. "It seems like investors were skeptical of the ECB being able to pull off unlimited bond buying authority, so that's really helping."
The ECB also left interest rates unchanged at 0.75% and lowered its outlook for economic growth in 2012. The central bank now expects the euro-area economy to contract between 0.2% and 0.6% this year.
On the domestic front, a handful of reports on unemployment and hiring showed an improvement in the job market. The latest week of jobless claims fell by more than economists had forecast, while companies expanded their payrolls more than expected in July.
Investors hope Thursday's data is a preview of what the U.S. employment picture looks like with Friday's monthly jobs report.
"We've been seeing incremental improvement in the U.S. economy, and it would be great to get two strong jobs numbers in a row," said Ablin.
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The Dow is up today 231.73 points (1.8%) at 13,279.21
On this date in 2008 the Dow dropped 443.48 points (-4.85%) closing at 8695.79
So someone tell me again how great things were back in 2008- and how much better off we were with GW at the helm :shock: :roll: