US close: Dow rallies strongly after early falls

Date: Tuesday 25 May 2010

Wall Street bounced back strongly near the close to all but wipe out the severe losses in early trading sparked by renewed fears over the health of Europe.

The Dow had opened more than 250 points down, but closed down just 22 at 10,043. Nasdaq dropped 2 points to 2,210 while the S&P 500 ended flat at 1,074.

Walt Disney was affected by a Wall Street Journal report that the group has formally terminated negotiations with Harvey and Bob Weinstein concerning the plan to sell them back Miramax Films.

Worries about whether bid talks for rubbish bag maker Pactiv will be successful have hit its share price.

Consumer confidence is at its highest level since March 2008. The Conference Board’s confidence index rose to 63.3, which was much better than expected. Americans are feeling more positive about job prospects but the European debt problems could still knock this confidence.

The Case-Shiller index of home prices fell 3.2% quarter-over-quarter but is up 2% on the year.

S&P 500 - Risers
A K Steel Holdings Corp. (AKS) $15.06 +11.39%
Sprint Nxtel Corp. (S) $5.29 +10.44%
Allegheny Tech (ATI) $52.07 +6.55%
Autozone Inc. (AZO) $194.57 +5.60%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $53.12 -4.04%
CME Group Inc. (CME) $311.65 -3.52%
Textron Inc. (TXT) $19.52 -3.46%
Verisign Inc. (VRSN) $26.17 -3.42%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $33.98 +2.29%
Alcoa Inc. (AA) $11.30 +1.89%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $20.86 +0.92%
Bank Of America Corp. (BAC) $15.53 +0.84%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) $28.37 -1.94%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $50.62 -1.63%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $50.28 -1.41%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $72.57 -1.18%