A day after major losses, Wall Street bulls were back in force Friday.
Helping things along was the announcement by the Bush administration that it was extending $17.4 billion in loans to the three major automaking companies, General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford.
In late morning trading the Dow Jones Industrials were ahead 159.70 points o 1.86% at 8,764.69.
The Nasdaq Composite was up 35.44 points or 2.28% at 1,587.81.
The Standard and Poor's 500 added 14.13 points or 1.60% at 899.41.
The U.S. dollar made sharp gains against the European currencies Friday, but was litle changed elsewhere.
In late morning trading in New York the Swiss franc had weakened t 1.1057. The euro was quoted at 1.3954.
The British pound was little canged at 1.4955, as was th apanese yen at 89.36.
The Australian dollar edged down to .6864, while the Canadian dollar slipped to 1.2174.
