Stocks Soar As War Appears Certain

Stocks soared Monday as final efforts at diplomacy failed, making war with Iraq appear all but certain.

The Nasdaq soared 51 to 1392, the S&P 500 surged 29 to 862, and the Dow soared 282 to 8141. Volume rose to 1.7 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.9 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 21-9 on the NYSE, and 24-10 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 92% on the NYSE, and 91% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 66-65 on the NYSE, and 62-80 on the Nasdaq.

After the close, Applied Materials announced 14% layoffs, and Gateway and Tech Data warned.

During the day, Yahoo and Amazon powered to new 52-week highs. Yahoo launched its video subscription service.

Oracle gained 3.4% ahead of tomorrow night’s earnings report. The company is expected to come in light on licensing revenues.

Verizon , up 2.4%, announced a major wireless broadband rollout. Sprint PCS , up 0.8%, enter the WiFi market.

Sun , up 9%, and Lucent , up 4.6%, announced a partnership.

Genesis Microchip rose 3.4% on news of a merger with Pixelworks .

Veritas , up 6.1%, restated revenues again.

Microsoft , up 4.3%, is scaling back its ISP ambitions. The company also announced another critical flaw.

Research In Motion , up 6.1%, scored a deal with Microsoft.

Adaptec , up 8.1%, unveiled new storage technology.

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