* Global stocks rally after last week's dramatic rout
* Oil rises from 13-month low; many commodities recover
* Euro soars as European governments approve bank rescues
(Recasts with U.S. markets, adds byline; changes dateline;
previous LONDON)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Stocks soared globally and
crude oil prices jumped on Monday after governments around the
world ordered dramatic bank rescue packages to restore market
confidence and stop economies from sliding into a slump.
U.S. stocks shot more than 5 percent higher after Wall
Street opened, and European shares extended gains to rise more
than 7 percent at one point. Asian shares gained 5 percent.
Oil rose above $82 a barrel before paring gains, as
European governments took sweeping action to support banks and
boost confidence in the world's creaking financial system.
Britain, Germany, France, Italy and other European
governments all announced rescue packages worth hundreds of
billions of dollars designed to stave off a global financial
crisis that has threatened to spin out of control.
In the United States, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said
Washington was developing plans to buy equity in financial
institutions to halt the prolonged market turmoil.
Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank
in Chicago, said that with luck the government measures would
help investors past an hour-by-hour mentality to frame
decisions with an outlook that embraces the next few quarters.
"It's clearly an oversold bounce," Ablin said of the stock
market euphoria. "Sometime last week it seemed like we faced
Armageddon, so to have a coordinated plan on stabilizing banks
is huge progress."
U.S. stocks soared, led by financial shares.
At 10:30 a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average <> was
up 443.08 points, or 5.24 percent, at 8,894.27. The Standard &
Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 49.56 points, or 5.51 percent,
at 948.78. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> was up 90.84
points, or 5.51 percent, at 1,740.35.
Morgan Stanley <MS.N> jumped more than 50 percent after
Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group <8306.T> said it would
go ahead with its plan to pay $9 billion for a 21 percent stake
in the former investment bank, now a bank holding company.
Shares of General Motors <GM.N> climbed more than 20
percent following news that the largest U.S. automaker has held
merger talks with rivals Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co <F.N>.
Ford's shares rose 21 percent at $2.41.
Gold at first rose as the dollar slipped, lifting its
appeal as an alternative investment, but later fell.
Commodities recovered almost across the board after
Friday's rout, with industrial metals, sugar, grains and coffee
all rising.
The euro surged as much as 1.8 percent from a 1-1/2-year
low against the dollar, and the interbank cost of borrowing in
sterling, euros and dollars fell as confidence in money markets
showed signs of returning.
The euro <EUR=> was up 1.60 percent at $1.3626, and the
dollar was down 0.6 percent against a basket of major
currencies, the U.S. Dollar Index <.DXY>, at 81.301.
Against the yen, the dollar <JPY=> was down 0.01 percent at
100.63.
The Bund future <FGBLc1> was 80 ticks down at 114.58.
U.S. light sweet crude oil <CLc1> rose $3.27 to $80.97 a
barrel.
Spot gold prices <XAU=> fell $18.45 to $828.95 an ounce.
Asian stocks jumped over 7 percent, according to MSCI's
index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS>,
after tanking more than 20 percent last week to the lowest
since December 2004. Japanese markets were closed for holidays
on Monday.
(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu and Steven C. Johnson in New York
and Jamie McGeever, Jane Merriman, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and
Jan Harvey in London; Writing by Herbert Lash; Editing by James
Dalgleish)
