By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The U.S. stock market on Tuesday celebrated the start of the new trading year in rally mode after a gauge of U.S. manufacturing hit a six-month high in December.
The Institute for Supply Management reported its manufacturing survey rose to 53.9 last month from 52.7 in November.
“Both exports and import orders saw strength in the month. The trend for the U.S. economy is most decidedly to the upside,” Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC, noted in emailed commentary.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +1.91% rose 241.51 points, or 2%, to 12,459.07, with last year’s greatest loser among the blue chips, Bank of America Corp. BAC +4.68% , pacing Tuesday’s gains, which included all but three of the blue-chip index’s 30 components.
The S&P 500 Index SPX +1.98% advanced 25.92 points, or 2.1%, to 1,283.52, with financial companies faring best among its 10 industry groups.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP +2.07% climbed 56.08 points, or 2.2%, to 2,661.24.
For every stock falling more than five gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 256 million shares had traded by 11:10 a.m. Eastern.
The dollar DXY -0.71% slid against other major currencies and U.S. Treasury prices also fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note 10_YEAR +4.11% rising to 1.95%.
Crude-oil futures CL2G +3.56% topped $102 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
And, minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting will be released in the afternoon.
On Friday, Wall Street finished off a volatile year pretty much where it stood at the close of 2010, with the S&P 500 unchanged in 2011; the Dow industrials rose 5.5% for the year and the Nasdaq fell 1.8%.
Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York.
