The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) climbed above the highest closing level since 2008 as the European Central Bank announced specifics of its bond-buying plan and data boosted optimism in the labor market.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.4 percent to 1,422.36 at 10:13 a.m. in New York. The Dow advanced 179.37 points, or 1.4 percent, to 13,226.85 today. Trading in S&P 500 companies was up 30 percent from the 30-day average at this time of day.
“We are in a period where we are peeling away the onion little by little, all the uncertainties, what’s going to happen in Europe and what’s going to happen here,” Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management LLC in Fort Lee, New Jersey, said in a phone interview. His firm oversees $3.5 billion. “I think Draghi is serious about putting Europe on the positive path.”
Draghi said policy makers agreed to an unlimited bond- purchase program as they try to regain control of interest rates in the euro area. He said the ECB will have a “fully effective backstop to avoid destructive scenarios with potentially severe challenges for price stability.”
U.S. jobless claims declined last week and companies added more workers than forecast in August, reports showed today before monthly payrolls data tomorrow. Service industries in the U.S. expanded in August at a faster pace than forecast.
