Stocks soar to finish tough month
Led by the tech industry, the indexes close with their biggest gains in about fivemonths.
Stocks soared on the last trading day of January, with Microsoft, Visa and other tech stocks making the biggest gains in a broad market rally Friday.
Indexes rose throughout the day and finished with their biggest gains in about five months. Asian stocks jumped after the Bank of Japanmoved to stimulate the economy, and European markets also rose. In the U. S., tech stocks climbed following strong fourth- quarter results from Microsoft and Visa. Materials companies and banks also made large gains, and the price of oil rose for the fourth day in a row.
TheU. S. government said Friday that the economy slowed in the fourth quarter, a possibility that had worried investors. But its estimate of the country’s gross domestic product was about equal to analysts’ forecasts and didn’t hurt stocks.
TheDowJones industrial average surged 396.66 points, or 2.47 percent, to 16,466.30. The Standard& Poor’s 500 index rose 46.88 points, or 2.5 percent, to 1,940.24, as more than 480 of its component stocks rose. The Nasdaq composite index jumped 107.28 points, or 2.4 percent, to 4,613.95.
Stocks made some big gains in the past two weeks but still finished January with hefty losses.
Microsoft added $ 3.04, or 5.8 percent, to $ 55.09 after its fourth- quarter profit and revenue beat expectations. Visa and MasterCard both rose after reporting solid results. Visa climbed $ 5.16, or 7.4 percent, to $ 74.49, and MasterCard picked up $ 5.60, or 6.7 percent, to $ 89.03.
E- commerce company Amazon took its largest one- day slide in more than a year, down $ 48.35 to $ 587. Amazon’s quarterly profit more than doubled, but it still fell short of forecasts because of higher costs.
Crude oil prices kept rising. Benchmark U. S. oil added 40 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $ 33.62 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, gained 85 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $ 34.74. Oil prices have increased for four days in a row as investors hope for cuts in global production.