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1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks surge on Greece deal hopes

Xinhua, February 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks rebounded strongly Tuesday, bringing the three major indices back to green territory for the year, as speculation grew that Greece will reach a compromise with its creditors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 139.55 points, or 0.79 percent, to 17,868.76. The S&P 500 added 21.85 points, or 1.07 percent, to 2,068.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 61.63 points, or 1.30 percent, to 4,787.65.

Wall Street was boosted by developments in the Greece-euro standoff. According to Greek Finance Ministry sources, Greece's new government was confident that a bridge agreement could be reached in next week's euro group meeting and a final deal on the resolution of the Greek debt load could follow in September.

On the economic front, U.S. job openings registered 5.03 million in December, above 5 million for the first time since January 2001, beating market expectations, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The National Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday that U.S. Small Business Optimism Index fell to 97.9 in January from December's nine-year high of 100.4.

In corporate news, Coca-Cola Co. shares gained 2.84 percent to 42.40 dollars apiece Tuesday after the world's largest beverage maker reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings. The company's fourth quarter earnings per share were 17 cents, and its global volume growth was 2 percent for the full year of 2014.

UBS Group AG shares fell 2.36 percent to 16.93 dollars apiece after reporting lower-than-expected quarterly earnings, as investors were also pondering that the Swiss franc's strength could hit the biggest Swiss bank's future profits.

Latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that S&P 500 companies' per-share earnings in the fourth quarter of 2014 are expected to grow 6.6 percent year on year, while revenue growth is forecast to increase 1.9 percent. A total of 341 companies in the S&P 500 have reported quarterly results to date.

Qualcomm shares climbed 4.69 percent to 70.26 dollars apiece Tuesday after the chip maker announced late Monday that it reached a deal with the Chinese government over the anti-trust probe. Chinese authorities imposed a fine of 6.09 billion yuan (about 994 million U.S. dollars) on the San Diego-based company, the largest anti-trust penalty in the country. Endite