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NEW YORK - US stocks opened with a bounce on Thursday as investors welcomed rate cuts by central banks around the world and signs of easing credit.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average leapt 193.95 points (2.16 per cent) to 9,184.91 in opening trades and the Nasdaq surged 38.05 points (2.30 per cent) to 1,695.26.
The broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 21.97 points (2.36 per cent) to 952.06.
The action came a day after a mostly lower day for Wall Street in extremely choppy trade, after the Federal Reserve, as widely expected, slashed its key interest rate by a half point for the second time this month, to a historic low of 1.0 per cent to ease the credit squeeze.
Analysts said the Fed signalled it was leaving the door open to further rate cuts in the face of a sharp slowdown in the world's biggest economy. It also opened credit lines to central banks in Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore.
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan also lowered rates as part of efforts to avert a financial system meltdown and speculation swirled that Japan's central bank may follow suit.
'Rate cuts by other central banks, the Fed's new currency swap line provided to key emerging market economies, better-than-expected earnings results from ExxonMobil, and a continued drop in LIBOR rates are helping to underpin a bullish bias,' Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com said.
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