Despite a global economic crisis, a less than stellar success rate for stopping the oil leak in the Gulf, and the introduction of hurricane season, investors on Wednesday pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average up to a 225.52 point increase closing at 10,249.54.
Even news that AT&T (NYSE: T) was about to end its unlimited plan for Apple iPad users wasn’t enough to dissuade investors and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock gained 3.12 points and ATT gained .16 points. Positive economic news on the home front was largely responsible for the market rebound as U.S. Airlines announced a more than 23% increase in the revenue it gets per booked seat on its flights. This is one of the first indicators that the travel industry could be headed for some more positive news this summer. Also helping matters was the announcement by GM and Ford (NYSE: F) that they had each experienced impressive, double digit increases in May sales.
But the real winner today was Halliburton Co (NYSE: HAL) whose stock rose almost 12% as investors received a boost of confidence in the form of a publicly announced indemnity against claims that could result from BP’s oil spill in the Gulf.
The Nasdaq closed today at 2,281.07 showing an increase of 58.74 points while the S&P 500 closed at 1,098.38 with a gain of 27.67 points.
