| Advertisement |
NEW YORK, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- A strong start to the holiday shopping season overcame worries about the eurozone, sending U.S. stocks soaring Monday. Deep discounts sent shoppers scurrying to stores, pushing post Thanksgiving Day sales up 6.6 percent for Black Friday and 16.4 percent for the full weekend compared to last year, ShopperTrak and the National Retail Federation reported, respectively.
Advertisement
The retail federation estimated consumers spent an average of $398.62, up 9.1 percent from last year, with 38 percent coming from online sales.
Investors were also heartened by reports the International Monetary Fund was considering $529.6 billion in financial aid to Italy.
By close of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 291.23 points or 2.59 percent to 11,523.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 gained 33.88 points or 2.92 percent to 1,192.55. The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 85.83 points or 3.52 percent to 2,527.34.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 2,610 stocks advanced and 512 declined on a volume of 3.5 billion shares traded.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. treasury note was off 2/32 to yield 1.974 percent.
On currency markets, the euro rose to $1.3315 from Friday's $1.3239. Against the yen, the dollar rose to 78.01 yen, compared to Friday's 77.74.
On foreign markets, the Tokyo's Nikkei rose 1.56 percent to 8.287.49 and London's FTSE was up 2.87 percent to 5,312.76.
