US stocks surge on eurozone deal

NEW YORK: US stocks rallied on Thursday as eurozone leaders
clinched a deal to bail out Greece, boosting financial stocks that had
been battered in recent weeks by fears of a European debt crisis.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 152.50 points (1.21 per cent) to close at 12,724.41.


The broader S&P 500 climbed 17.96 points (1.35 per cent) to
1,343.80, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 20.20 points (0.72
per cent) to close at 2,834.43.


Citigroup rallied 4.4 per cent, Bank of America rose 3.9 per cent
and JPMorgan Chase was up 3.3 per cent in the rally, which came as
eurozone leaders met in Brussels to agree the details of a new bailout
package for Greece.





"Stocks blazed a steady path into the black today, as Wall Street
celebrated encouraging earnings and economic reports, and some
debt-related headway across the pond," said Andrew Kramer, an analyst
with Schaeffer's Investment Research.


Morgan Stanley surged 11.4 per cent after it reported a second-quarter loss that was not as bad as analysts had expected.


Shares of online marketplace eBay climbed 0.8 per cent on its strong
earnings report, but Intel's solid quarter failed to help its stock,
which ended the day down 0.8 per cent.


Another tech stock, Cisco, gained 3.4 per cent. Cisco shares have
rallied this week since the networking-hardware maker announced 6,500
layoffs on Monday in a bid to slash costs.


The Greece bailout plan unveiled in Brussels totaled 159 billion
euros (US$229 billion), including 109 billion euros in loans from the
European Union and International Monetary Fund and 50 billion euros of
funding from the private sector.


News from the United States was not as favorable, as jobless claims
rose by 10,000 to 418,000 for the week ending July 16, and talks on
raising the federal government's debt ceiling made little visible
progress in Washington. -- AF