Shares on Wall St surged again overnight, with the tech sector continuing to win the lion's share of the money flowing into equities. The Dow Jones rose 82.95 points, or 0.9pc, to 9,586.29, while the Nasdaq jumped 30.38, or 1.6pc, to an 18-month high of 8,188.62. The gains came as the bulls put Friday's disappointing non-far payrolls behind them and looked to this week's retail sales and Michigan consumer sentiment survey, which are expected to further confirm the US recovery. On the industrial average, IBM rose 2.5pc after Credit Suisse First Boston upgraded the stock "outperform" from "neutral", while HP added 1.3pc and Microsoft gained 1.6pc.
Fast food chain McDonald's also edged higher after it said that same-store sales rose 3.8pc in August. Chipmaker Intel rose 1.6pc, while on the Nasdaq, chip equipment firms soared after Smith Barney upgraded its rating on the sector to "overweight" from "market weight", saying recent evidence shows that industry fundamentals are starting to improve. Applied Materials jumped 4pc and Novellus added 3.1pc. //www.fxcentre.com