U.S. Stocks Post Steepest Gain Since November as Banks Rebound (Lynn Thomasson)

  March 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks ended a four-week losing streak with the steepest rally since November after the nation’s three largest banks said they’ve become profitable and General Electric Co. said losing the top credit rating at Standard & Poor’s won’t hurt business.

  The banks, Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., surged 49 percent or more, propelling a measure of S&P 500 financial stocks to a record gain. GE added 36 percent as S&P raised its outlook to “stable.” All 27 companies in the S&P 500 Retailing Index climbed following a government report showing U.S. chain-store sales beat estimates last month. Schering-Plough Corp. jumped 37 percent after Merck & Co. agreed to buy the drugmaker for $41.1 billion.

  “It’s been a terrific week,” said Fritz Meyer, the Denver-based senior market strategist for Invesco Aim, which oversees $357 billion. “It would make sense for the market to bottom here and start to rebound as the economic recovery unfolds.”

  The S&P 500 rallied 11 percent to 756.55, recovering from the 12-year low of 676.53 reached on March 9. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 597.04 points, or 9 percent, to 7,223.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 11 percent to 1,431.50. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies increased 12 percent to 393.09.

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