Stocks jumped Tuesday, with the three major indexes rising to their highest levels in nearly a month, as worries about Europe's debt problems hurting U.S. growth eased and the euro currency rallied. After falling for most of the last six weeks, stocks started to stabilize in the middle of last week. The major indexes lost more than 12 percent each between the rally highs of late April and last week's lows. In U.S. economic news, import process fell a smaller-than-expected 0.6 percent in April, but it was still the biggest monthly drop in almost a year. Export prices rose 0.6 percent. The U.S. dollar fell 0.9 percent versus the euro and 0.4 percent versus the yen. The weaker dollar boosted commodities, with light sweet crude for July delivery rising $1.36 to $76.48 and gold rising $8.40 to $1,231.90 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 213.88, or 2.1 percent, to 10,404.77. All 30 Dow components rose, led by Boeing, Caterpillar, McDonald's, 3M, Microsoft, and United Technologies. Boeing shares rose 4 percent after the aerospace giant said it was increasing production of its popular narrow-body 737 jetliner for the second time in two months, citing improved demand in a recovering global economy. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 25.60, or 2.35 percent, to 1,115.23. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 61.92, or 2.8 percent, to 2,305.88. Chip stocks gained on reports that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and United Microelectronics Corporation, two of the world's biggest chipmakers, said global chip demand will grow in the second half of the year. News Corp shares jumped 8 percent in active trading as investors bet it will eventually win its battle to take full control of BSkyB, the British satellite broadcaster.
