Stocks soared Friday on hopes that government intervention can help stabilize the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market.
President Bush outlined a plan to help keep subprime borrowers from foreclosure, and a much anticipated speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke kept alive hopes for a Fed rate cut next month, sending stocks surging.
At 12:30 P.M. Eastern Time, the Dow was up about 170 points and trading above 13,400. The S&P 500 was up 20 points to 1478, and the Nasdaq gained 30 points to 2595. Volume was light at about 900 million shares on the NYSE and 700 million on the Nasdaq, but breadth measures were decidedly positive.
Dell Among Nasdaq most actives, Nvidia Open Text Note: The Technical Analysis column will return on Sept. 4. was little changed despite better than expected quarterly results.
and E*Trade
were big gainers.
, Credence
, Omnivison
and Wind River
gained on their results, and even Novellus
traded higher despite cautious comments.
