World stock markets surge sharply higher
03-01-2009
World stock markets have rallied strongly on the first trading day of 2009 as New Year optimism more than offset grim economic news from around the globe. US stocks moved sharply upwards as investors pinned their hopes on a better year after a horrendous 2008 that slashed up to 40 percent off the major indexes. Building on modest opening gains in thin trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up nearly three percent. The Nasdaq leapt three-and-a-half percent while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 3.1-percent. Across the Atlantic, London's FTSE 100 closed up 2.9 percent, while Germany's DAX was 3.4 percent higher. France's CAC-40 surged 4.1 percent.
