Cisco shake-up stirs US stocks

NEW YORK: The US stock market rose Wednesday, nudged upward by rumors of a shake-up at tech giant Cisco and rising banking stocks.

Leaked comments from Cisco boss John Chambers suggested big changes ahead at the firm, prompting speculation he might spin off Cisco's consumer business.

That pushed the networking giant's stocks up 5.3 percent, on hopes the company will regain direction.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 33.64 points (0.27 percent) to 12,427.54 in closing trades, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 8.67 points (0.31 percent) at 2,799.86.

The broad-market S&P 500-stock index climbed 2.94 points (0.22 percent) to 1,335.57.

Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Intel also rose sharply amid light trade.

The banking sector made strong gains, with JPMorgan Chase rising 2.3 percent. American Express and Bank of America were both up over two percent.

With the absence of major US data, the markets got initial impetus from rising markets in Europe and Asia.

Bond prices fell.

"Treasuries will end the day just off their worst levels of the session as another positive day for equities coupled with a lack of data and auctions caused traders to dump safer assets," said analysts at Briefing.com.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.55 percent from 3.49 percent late Tuesday, while that for the 30-year bond increased to 4.59 percent from 4.51 percent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.