* Biggest Election Day rally ever
* Market's highest close since Oct 6.
* GE climbs on talk of capital injection
* Dow up 3.3 pct, S&P up 4 pct, Nasdaq up 3.1 pct
(Updates to close)
By Leah Schnurr and Kristina Cooke
NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose in the
biggest Election Day rally ever on Tuesday, as investors
looked forward to the end of the uncertainty surrounding the
long fight for the White House, and as energy companies'
shares followed oil prices higher.
The rally pushed stocks to their highest close since Oct.
6, with the S&P 500 crossing the 1,000 mark for the first time
since Oct. 13. The three major U.S. stock indexes are all up
around 18 percent from their closing low points on Oct. 27.
Adding to the positive tone, the Treasury Department is
exploring how to best expand its capital injection program and
is considering specialty finance firms, such as General
Electric's GE Capital unit, a source familiar with the
government's thinking said. Shares of GE, an economic
bellwether and a Dow component, rose more than 7 percent.
Chevron <CVX.N> led the Dow higher after U.S. crude
futures <CLc1> jumped $6.62, or 10.4 percent, to settle at
$70.53 a barrel on signals that OPEC members were cutting
output to comply with the group's recent decision.
More signs of thawing credit markets prompted investors to
snap up shares at multi-year lows. The interest rates banks
charge each other for short-term loans fell again, providing
further hope that measures to shore up the credit markets are
taking hold.
But the presidential election was first and foremost on
investors' minds. Opinion polls indicate Democrat Barack Obama
is running ahead of Republican John McCain in enough states to
give him more than the 270 electoral votes he needs to win.
"There is new leadership tomorrow and whoever it is, it
has to be better than what we've got," said Jim Paulsen, chief
investment officer of Wells Capital Management.
Also, with regard to the credit markets, "you've got that
relief that they've got that plumbing unplugged and working
again that should be a catalyst to go back into the equity
market," Paulsen said.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> rose 305.45
points, or 3.28 percent, to 9,625.28. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> jumped 39.45 points, or 4.08 percent, to
1,005.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> gained 53.79
points, or 3.12 percent, to 1,780.12.
It was the biggest Election Day rally ever. Election Day
was a market holiday before 1984, according to Standard &
Poor's.
Strong earnings from MasterCard Inc <MA.N> and Archer
Daniels Midland Co <ADM.N> improved optimism about consumer
spending and pricing power even as economic data pointed to a
worsening slowdown.
MasterCard, the world's second-largest card network,
surged 18.3 percent to $170.24 after the company reported
stronger-than-expected earnings late on Monday.
Archer Daniels' shares jumped 15.3 percent to $24.33 after
it posted a sharply higher profit, helped by higher selling
prices and an accounting change.
GE climbed 7.6 percent to $20.77.
A possible next step for the Treasury could be extending
help to specialty finance firms such as GE Capital, CIT Group
<CIT.N> and others, the source said. CIT's shares shot up 36.1
percent to $6.15 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Chevron shares rose 6.1 percent to $78.19, while an index
of oil stocks <.OIX> gained 6.6 percent.
Tenet Healthcare Corp <THC.N> sank 36.7 percent to $2.61
on the NYSE after the hospital operator reported
worse-than-expected results and cut its 2008 forecast.
In economic news, data showed that new orders received by
U.S. factories took a surprisingly steep tumble for a second
month in a row during September, but the markets largely
shrugged off the data.
At least 130 million Americans were expected to vote on a
successor to unpopular Republican President George W. Bush and
set the country's course for the next four
years.[].
Trading was muted on the New York Stock Exchange, with
about 1.31 billion shares changing hands, below last year's
estimated daily average of roughly 1.90 billion, while on
Nasdaq, about 2.34 billion shares traded, above last year's
daily average of 2.17 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of
4 to 1 on the NYSE and, on the Nasdaq, by about 9 to 5.
(Additional reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Jan
Paschal)
