NEW YORK - US STOCKS kept momentum on Tuesday from a powerful two-day rally, lifted by the latest effort by the Federal Reserve to restart credit markets and lower borrowing costs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 105.61 points (1.25 per cent) to 8,549.00 in the first trades after two days of hefty gains that added nearly 900 points to the blue-chip index.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 4.70 points (0.32 per cent) to 1,476.72 and the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index added 13.44 points (1.58 per cent) to 865.25.
Market action came as the US Federal Reserve announced plans to pump up to 800 billion dollars into the financial system in purchases of mortgage- and asset-backed securities.
The new efforts come as part of a move to restart consumer credit markets that froze up in October and to get more liquidity and bring down borrowing costs for the housing market, which is at the center of the economic storm.
Mr Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com said that the Fed's 'direct efforts to help consumers get access to credit have added political and economic capital that is giving the market a nice lift.' -- AFP
