A big jump in the U.S. dollar and a big drop in oil prices sent stocks soaring Friday, as investors cheered signs that inflation pressures are easing.
The news was good for a 2.5% gain for the major stocks indexes, which notched six-week highs on positive inflation trends that have been building since mid-July.
The news was good enough to help investors overcome the market’s other big worry — the year-long housing and credit crisis — even though Fannie Mae’s (NYSE: FNM) dismal quarterly results suggested that no end remains in sight for those troubles.
Of the Nasdaq’s most actively traded technology stocks, Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) posted the biggest gain, up 5.1% on an upbeat conference presentation.
Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) rose 4.5% each, and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) gained more than 3% each.
Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) rose 7.6% even as Google said its AOL investment may be impaired.
Qwest (NYSE: Q) jumped 11% on a Morgan Stanley upgrade, and Sprint (NYSE: S) rose another 12% after canceling a convertible offering.
Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) had a tough debut, off 20% from its IPO price.
Anadigics (NASDAQ: ANAD), Cogent (NASDAQ: CCOI) and Guidance Software (NASDAQ: GUID) tumbled on their results.
NextWave (NASDAQ: WAVE) plunged 67% on news that it could run out of cash next month.
The Nasdaq soared 58 to 2414, the S&P rose 30 to 1296, and the Dow soared 302 to 11,734. Volume declined to 4.93 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.23 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 25-8 margin on the NYSE, and 20-8 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 76% on the NYSE, and 78% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 48-115 on the NYSE, and 83-111 on the Nasdaq.