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Updated Saturday, September 17, 2011 11:54 pm TWN, AFP |
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US stocks rise as Europe discusses crisisThe Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 65.65 points (0.57 percent) to 11,498.83 in the first 40 minutes of trade. The broader S&P 500 rose 7.04 points (0.58 percent) to 1,216.15, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 11.64 points (0.45 percent) to stand at 2,618.71. The Nasdaq was weighed down by Research in Motion (RIM), whose shares plunged more than 19 percent after the BlackBerry maker reported late Thursday that its quarterly sales had fallen short of expectations. Once highly successful, the Canadian company has been facing stiff competition from Apple's iPhone and Google's Android family of smart phones. At the meeting in Wroclaw, Poland, eurozone finance ministers decided to delay the next, 8-billion-euro tranche of their bailout loans to Greece amid checks to ensure that Athens was carrying through with its promises of reform. Also at the talks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned that the Greek debt crisis and divisions between politicians and central bankers posed a “catastrophic risk” to markets. “The question today is, will European officials stay on the offensive or will they merely offend with vague promises to work together and no concrete solutions?” said Patrick O'Hare, an analyst with Briefing.com. U.S. stocks got a lift from a survey showing consumer confidence was up in September. The University of Michigan's index of consumer confidence rose 2.1 points to 57.8, rebounding from a steep drop-off in August. Bond prices fell. The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield rose to 2.11 percent from 2.09 percent late Thursday, while the 30-year bond increased to 3.37 percent from 3.35 percent. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. | |||||||||||||