Spending data lifts US stocks more than 2pc

NEW YORK: US stock markets rallied on Monday as upbeat data on consumer spending lifted hopes that economic growth would pick up speed, and Hurricane Irene caused less damage than feared.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 254.71 points (2.26 percent) to close at 11,539.26.

The broader S&P 500 surged 33.28 points (2.83 percent) to 1,210.08, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shot up 82.26 points (3.32 percent) to 2,562.11.

The US Commerce Department reported that consumer spending, a major pillar of the world's largest economy, rebounded 0.8 percent in July, after a 0.1 percent dip in June.

"The consumer is still out there spending, which set a very nice tone for the third quarter," said Lindsey Piegza, an analyst with FTN Financial.

She added: "We had a much better-than-expected scenario in terms of the hurricane hitting the East Coast. There was minimum damage, we are already seeing the debris moved away and transportation is back up and running."

Investors also got an unexpected dose of good news from Europe, where the sovereign debt crisis has been weighing on market sentiment.

Two Greek banks, Alpha Bank and Eurobank, announced that they were merging and receiving a sizable Qatari investment, the first bit of good news from Greece's banking sector for some time.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011