Cheers on Wall St as Dow gains 205, Nasdaq 51

Malaysia Sun Friday 21st December, 2007

Wall was full of Christmas cheer on Friday as all the major indices surged.

At the close of trading the Dow Jones Industrials were up a hefty 205.01 points or 1.55% at 13,450.65.

The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite gained 51.13 or 1.94% to 2,691.99, while the Standard & Poor's 500 added 24.34 or 1.67% to 1,484.46

Traders were spurred on by a report that indicated U.S. personal spending rose more than anticipated in November, suggesting consumers have not been discouraged by signs of a slowdown in the economy. In the same report, prices, excluding food and energy, rose at the pace economists were forecasting.

"What you're finding is that spending is holding up and core inflation came in pretty much in line," Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist at Channel Capital Research in Shrewsbury, New Jersey told the Reuters newsagency. "It indicates (that) although the credit problems can amount to something, it's still localized."

The U.S. dollar remained strong against the European currencies, picking up steam against the Japanese yen, but was giving ground against the commodity currencies.

Around the New York close the euro was quoted at 1.4356, and the British pound at 1.9822.

The Japanese yen fell to 114.16 while the Swiss franc was little changed at 1.1564.

The Australian and Canadian dollars were in demand, fetching .8669 and .9934 respectively.