US Stocks Soar, Ease Fear of Global Crash

US stock markets rebounded on Monday and lifted European stocks off their lows, easing fears of a global market meltdown in the first session after Friday's historic point drops, as investors jumped back into household technology names and drove the Nasdaq composite to close with its biggest single-day point gain ever.

Wall Street's two biggest stock indexes soared, posting triple-digit gains that partly reversed their plunge on Friday, as the bond market tumbled. Oil prices rose amid expectations of strong gasoline demand for the summer driving season. Gold slipped as the Dow average recovered. Sugar prices hit a year peak on the prospect of lower Brazilian production.

The Nasdaq composite index climbed 217.87 points, or 6.56 percent, to finish at 3,539.16 -- marking its biggest single-day point gain ever. The technology-driven Nasdaq, which fell 355.49 points on Friday and finished the week down 25 percent, got a lift Monday from a surge in the shares of Intel Corp., Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average jumped 276.74 points, or 2.69 percent, to end at 10,582.51, getting a jolt of energy from General Electric and consumer products giant Procter & Gamble. Monday's advance helped the Dow average partially recover from Friday's frightening loss of 617.78 points, a record.

"I don't think the bull market is ready to go away just yet," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "Everyone came in today on real, real shaky ground and clearly the oversold scenario has been recognised."

The broader market also pushed higher as bonds dropped. The Standard & Poor's 500 index jumped 44.88 points, or 3.31 percent, to 1,401.53, and the Wilshire 5000 index gained 374.44 points, or 3 percent, to close at 12,849.58.

While Asian markets felt the full force of the New York collapse, European bourses benefited from a more stable Wall Street Monday.

Volatility marked stock trading in New York and around the world. That choppy action is expected to continue this week as Wall Street tests a new, lower trading range amid heightened concern about inflation and strong corporate earnings.

Still, Monday's rally on Wall Street reassured some market players, who said leading stock indexes may have bottomed out already.

Markets could also take some solace from influential Wall Street analyst Abby Joseph Cohen, who was unmoved from her long-term bullish view of equities by last week's market freefall.

LONDON'S FTSE-100 INDEX ENDS AT SIX-MONTH LOW

In London, the blue-chip FTSE-100 index slipped 3 percent, or 183.5 points, to close at 5,994.6, its lowest settlement in six months. Earlier Monday, the FTSE 100 suffered some savage losses on the heels of Friday's carnage in the U.S. markets and hit a six-month intraday low of 5,915.2 at the start of trading.

Frankfurt's DAX closed down just 0.4 percent and Paris's CAC was virtually flat.

"There was no big surprise in the downturn or in the apparent stabilisation, but we are not out of the woods yet," said SG Securities equity analyst Andy Hartwill in London.

He predicted that volatility will be the flavor du jour in the London market at least until next month's meeting of the Federal Reserve's policy-makers, who are expected to raise U.S. interest rates again by at least 25 basis points.

Optimists in Europe, however, quickly proclaimed the market declines of last week as a potential buying opportunity.

"I don't believe we are about to see the end of our universe as we know it," said James Montier, investment strategist at brokerage Albert E. Sharp Securities.

A chill wind blew through the global new-issues market, however, delaying some high-profile initial public offerings (IPOs). But other companies carried on with flotation plans.

The litmus test for many European investors Monday was Deutsche Telekom AG's offering of shares in Europe's biggest Internet service provider, T-Online. The shares of T-Online, priced at 27 euros per share, traded as high as 33 euros in their debut on Monday, prompting sighs of relief for the Internet company's parent, Deutsche Telekom, the former telephone monopoly.

The pan-European Eurotop index of 300 shares ended down 1.59 percent at 1,536.2, off a low of 1491.34, while the narrower Euro Stoxx index of 50 blue-chip euro zone shares was down 1.08 percent at 4,979.66 from a low of 4798.94.

Investors sliced 6.98 percent off Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average overnight. The Nikkei lost 1,426.04 points to close at 19,008.64, its lowest close since Jan. 25 and its fifth-biggest drop in terms of both percentage and points.

Hong Kong tumbled almost 9 percent, while South Korea had its worst-ever plunge of 11.63 percent.

Analysts had warned that more downside would be in the works if Wall Street's tumble resumed on Monday. U.S. BONDS WHACKED BY NASDAQ'S RECOVERY

The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond lost 2-6/32, or $21.875 for each $1,000 in face value, as it reeled Monday afternoon from the Nasdaq's rebound. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction of its price, leaped to 5.94 percent from Friday's close at 5.79 percent.

The 10-year Treasury note slid 1-12/32, with the yield rising to 6.04 percent from Friday's close at 5.86 percent.

YEN OUTRUNS DOLLAR, EURO SLIPS AFTER G-7 HUSH

On foreign exchange markets, the yen rallied against the dollar and euro after Japan failed to get the backing of fellow members of the Group of Seven club of major industrialised nations to help cut its value.

Reluctance of Japanese investors to send their money abroad as the Tokyo stock market plunged after Friday's Wall Street bloodbath also helped keep the yen strong.

In New York, the dollar slipped to 104.50 yen Monday from 104.75 yen at Friday's close. Against Europe's single currency, the dollar rose to 95.22 cents per euro from 96.19 cents on Friday.

In Washington, meanwhile, demonstrations through the weekend and into Monday against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank brought the U.S. government to a partial halt.

World Bank delegates dodged protests Monday by arriving early. But police later hurled tear gas cannisters and sprayed pepper to break up demonstrations. The violence had forced the U.S. government to partially close a number of offices in the nation's capital for the day.

OIL PRICES RISE ON OUTLOOK FOR SUMMER GASOLINE DEMAND

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for May delivery rose 32 cents to settle at $25.89 a barrel. Expectations of strong gasoline demand for the summer driving season, including vacation travel, and fuel demand for farm fieldwork inspired speculators to buy crude futures, traders and dealers said.

COMEX June gold dropped 40 cents to settle at $284.20 a troy ounce, after the Dow average rebounded.

In New York, at the Coffee Sugar & Cocoa Exchange, the key July raw sugar contract hit a year peak of 6.60 cents a pound at the close on Monday. Benchmark sugar prices are up about 35 percent from February, when the leading contract ended at 4.88 cents a pound.

Buyers rushed into the sugar market on news that production in Brazil, a top sugar grower and exporter, will drop about 10 percent in the 2000/2001 cycle. Traders and analysts said the Brazil outlook for lower output was very good news but they noted that a severe supply glut still haunts the sugar market.



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