March 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the highest level since October 2008, as Citigroup Inc. and Zions Bancorporation led a bank rally and investors speculated that health-care reform will be harder to pass. Citigroup advanced 5.6 percent as Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said the bailed-out bank should be consistently profitable. Zions rose 4.6 percent after telling investors it would make more money lending this quarter. Coventry Health Care Inc. and Aetna Inc. increased more than 3.2 percent after a Senate parliamentarian made it harder for Democrats to use a process known as reconciliation to bypass Republican opposition to industry reform.
The S&P 500 advanced 0.4 percent to 1,150.24 at 4 p.m. in New York. It fell as much as 0.6 percent earlier after inflation in China accelerated more than economists estimated, spurring speculation the nation will boost interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44.51 points, or 0.4 percent, to 10,611.84.
“Some people view that 1,150 mark as an important level leading the market higher,” said Michael Holland, who oversees more than $4 billion as chairman of Holland & Co. in New York. “The economic fundamentals have been improving. It’s good to see that the bad news is unable to shake the market’s confidence.”
70% Surge
The S&P 500 closed at a 15-month high of 1,150.23 on Jan. 19, and then plunged 8.1 percent through Feb. 8 on concern that European nations including Greece will fail to pay back debt and speculation that the Fed will need to rein in emergency stimulus measures as the economy improves. After erasing the loss, the index has surged 70 percent since March 9, 2009.
Health-care stocks in the S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent today.
“I’m getting more and more convinced that the health-care reform is completely dead,” said Scott Tapley, a health-care money manager who helps oversee $2.5 billion at 1st Source Investment Advisors Inc. in South Bend, Indiana. “You get a sigh of relief because now they know they’re not going to have radical change in the immediate future.”
