Hello traders!

US stocks staged a major rally tonight with the Dow surging 217 points, after a Fed statement was seen as signaling that an end to the rate-tightening cycle is near.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 217.24 points at 11,190.80, marking its biggest one-day point gain since April, 2003, with all of its 30 components in positive territory.

The S&P500 rose 26.87 points, or 2.1%, to 1,272.87, its largest one day point gain since March, 2003, while the Nasdaq Composite also turned in its best one day rise since March, 2003, rising 62.54 points to 2,174.38.

See you in the morning with the latest....

G.

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng closed the morning up 370.65 points at 16,235.87, while the Nikkei was recently up 331.99 pointd at 15,453.14.

New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, was at $73.74, up 22 cents from $73.52 in late trades in the US, where the price had jumped $1.33.

Early broker notes:

XANSA CUT TO 'UNDERWEIGHT' VS 'OVERWEIGHT' AT JP MORGAN
EASYJET CUT TO 'UNDERWEIGHT' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT HSBC
SEVERN TRENT UPGRADED TO 'NEUTRAL' VS 'REDUCE' AT UBS

Happy Friday!

G.

Midday Market Summary

End-of-day Market Summary