NEW YORK: US stocks took off Tuesday and the Dow zoomed past the 13,000 mark driven by soaring bank shares, sparked by JPMorgan Chase's announcement of a huge share buyback and dividend hike.
At the closing bell the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 219.10 points (1.69 percent) to 13,178.81.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 24.92 (1.82 percent) to 1,396.01, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 56.22 points (1.88 percent) to 3,039.88.
Shares edged up in early trade helped by a strong showing in February in retail sales data that showed growth picking up to 1.1 percent month-on-month.
The Federal Reserve kept its low interest rate policy in place but acknowledged some improvement in the economy, further helping sentiment.
A final surge came after JPMorgan announced it had cleared Fed stress tests and would boost its dividend by 20 percent and embark on a $15 billion share buyback program.
JPMorgan shares added 7.0 percent while the other major banks followed suit, rising 5.8-6.3 percent.
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