Dow posts solid gains

THE Dow industrials built on gains yesterday after a settlement between top brokerages and US regulators boosted financial stocks and investor confidence amid a broad-based rally on Wall Street.

Around 1.10 pm ET, the Dow Jones industrial average, up 138.58 to 8503.38, rose 1.5%. The Nasdaq composite, up 14.32 to 1368.42, and Standard & Poor's 500 index, up 12.41 to 896.66, trended modestly higher.

The nation's biggest financial institutions agreed to pay $1.4 billion in fines to end a probe into charges that tainted research duped investors into buying over-hyped stocks.

“The settlement for the brokerages certainly takes the headline risk and some of the uncertainty out of the brokerages. That's a positive,” said Sarat Sethi, market strategist and portfolio manager with Douglas C. Lane & Associates.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancers beat decliners 2 to 1 as 993 million shares changed hands. On the Nasdaq, winners beat losers about 8 to 7 as 912 million shares traded.