Wall St soars after Fed's discount rate cut

U.S. stocks surged on Friday to end a turbulent week after the Federal Reserve cut the discount rate it charges banks in an emergency move to stabilise credit markets and keep the economy on track.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 233.30 points, or 1.82 per cent, to 13,079.08 - snapping a six-day streak of losses. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shot up 34.67 points, or 2.46 per cent, to 1,445.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index soared 53.96 poin ts, or 2.20 per cent, to 2,505.03. But it was still down 1.6 per cent for the week. The S&P 500 slipped 0.5 per cent for the week, while the Dow's weekly loss was 1.2 per cent.

For the year, the Dow is still up 4.9 per cent, while the S&P is up nearly 2 per cent and the Nasdaq is up 3.7 per cent.

Trading was heavy on the NYSE, with about 2.48 billion shares changing hands, above last year's estimated daily average of 1.84 billion, while on Nasdaq, about 2.58 billion shares traded, also surging ahead of last year's daily average of 2.02 billion. A dvancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of about 7 to 1 on the NYSE and by slightly more than 2 to 1 on the Nasdaq.