Today's Markets As of 3:06 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 327 points, or 2.9%, to 12,094, the S&P 500 climbed 35.4 points, or 2.9%, to 1,241 and the Nasdaq Composite surged 78.2 points, or 3.1%, to 2,601.
Financial, energy, basic material and industrial companies led the charge higher on Tuesday. Caterpillar (CAT: 91.12, +3.88, +4.44%), JPMorgan Chase (JPM: 32.24, +1.54, +5.02%) and Disney (DIS: 36.26, +1.52, +4.36%) were among the best-performing blue chips. In a sign of the breadth of the rally, every Dow component and all but 10 stocks included in the broad S&P 500 were to the upside.
Volume in advancing shares outnumbered declining issues on the New York Stock Exchange by close to 36-to-one, while volatility dropped. Indeed, the CBOE's VIX tumbled 7.6% to 23. Wall Street's fear gauge is on track to close below 25 for the third-straight session, which has occurred only one time in the past four months, according to an analysis by Dow Jones Newswires.
Oil prices rallied 3.6%, while the yield on U.S. government debt climbed as traders shed the safe-haven asset.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/12/20/stocks-zoom-higher-amid-economic-optimism/#ixzz1h6nNLFoh
