With traders expressing optimism about further stimulus from the world's central banks, stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Wednesday. The markets extended the upward move seen in the previous session, recovering further from the sell-off seen in recent weeks.
Most of the major sectors showed strong moves to the upside on the day, reflecting broad based buying interest on Wall Street.
Electronic storage stocks posted particularly strong gains, driving the NYSE Arca Disk Drive Index up by 4.1 percent. Standout gains by Imation (IMN) and STEC (STEC) helped to lift the index further off last Friday's eight-month closing low.
Substantial strength also emerged among brokerage stocks, as reflected by the 3.5 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index. Morgan Stanley (MS) helped to lead the sector higher, surging up by 8.4 percent.
Networking stocks also moved sharply higher on the day, resulting in a 3.7 percent advance by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Housing, semiconductor, oil, and steel stocks also posted significant gains.
The major averages saw further upside going into the close, ending the session at their best levels of the day. The Dow jumped 286.84 points or 2.4 percent to 12,414.79, the Nasdaq surged up 66.61 points or 2.4 percent to 2,844.72 and the S&P 500 soared 29.63 points or 2.3 percent to 1,315.13.
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