U.S. stock indexes posted strong gains Friday afternoon as oil prices continued a five-week decline with a drop of $3.40 per barrel.

The heavy drop to $116.55 per barrel offset a second-quarter report from the Federal National Mortgage Association that said the government-sponsored mortgage broker lost $2.3 billion in the second quarter.

Fannie Mae announced it would cut dividends to 5 cents a share, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Dow Jones industrial average found room to move. In early afternoon trading, the average was up 240.68 points to 11,672.11, up 2.11 percent. The Nasdaq composite index rose 46.74 points, or 1.98 percent, to 2,402.47. The Standard and Poor's 500 rose 1.78 percent to 1,288.66, up 22.59 points.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 3/32 to yield 3.937 percent.

The euro traded at $1.5033 against Thursday's close of $1.5323, while the dollar traded at 110.13 yen from Thursday's 109.43 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei average gained 43.42 points to 13,168.41, up 0.33 percent.

The FTSE 100 index in London rose 11.70 to 5,489.20, up 0.21 percent.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International


Publication date: 08 August 2008   

Source: UPI-1-20080808-12444200-bc-us-markets-1stld.xml

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