Stocks rallied Tuesday, with the Dow industrials and the Standard & Poor's 500 index ending at new records after the notes from the last Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting showed that U.S. central bankers were unanimous in their decision to boldly cut interest rates and that they would be willing to cut rates further, if needed. Stocks were slightly higher through the morning, flattened out in the early afternoon, and then began to rise as investors saw the notes from the September 18 Fed meeting, when the central bank cut interest rates for the first time in 4 years. The notes from the meeting showed that the decision to cut a key rate by a half-percentage point was unanimous, with the central bank worried the U.S. housing slump and credit-market tightening could hit consumers and the broader economy. Light sweet crude oil for November delivery rose $1.24 to settle at $80.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling $2.20 the previous session. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 120.80, or 0.9 percent, to 14,164.53, a record high. Twenty-five of the index's 30 components gained, led by Exxon Mobil, Caterpillar, General Electric (GE), and American Express. The broader S&P 500 index rose 12.57, or 0.8 percent, to 1,565.15, also a record high. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 16.54, or 0.6 percent, to 2,803.91. The New York Stock Exchange composite index rose 93.88 to 10,280.31. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 16.35 to 2,416.87. And the Russell 2000 index rose 5.58 to 845.72.
