Wall street rallies after holiday break

Investors coming back from their Fourth of July break sent share prices soaring on Wall Street yesterday, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average to its strongest gain since September.

By the end of a shortened trading day, the Dow had climbed 324.53, or 3.6%, to 9,379.50.

The last time the Dow had a bigger one-day point gain was September 24, 2001, when it rose 368.05 as it recovered from a precipitous drop after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The broader indexes also advanced. The Nasdaq rose 68.19, or 4.9%, to 1,448.36, while the S&P advanced 35.04, or 3.7%, to 989.03.

Peter Zuger, a portfolio manager at State Street Research & Management in Boston, said that a rally that began on Wednesday in shares of large companies ‘‘broadened across the market’’ yesterday.

But it remained difficult to predict where the market would go next week.

‘‘We’ve had one-day rallies, then more selling,’’ he said.

Alan Ackerman, executive vice president of Fahnestock & Co, termed yesterday’s performance ‘‘a relief rally’’ on the absence of a terrorist attack on the Fourth of July and said there were ‘‘plenty of traders who are bargain hunting’’.

Stephen Carl, head of equity trading at The Williams Capital Group, noted that volume was low and that many who were in the market appeared to be ‘‘bottom fishing’’.

Warning that many investors remained pessimistic, he added: ‘‘With the chicanery and skullduggery that the CEOs are taking part in, accounting irregularities at major companies and terrorism concerns, investors are hesitant.’’

Vivendi Universal rose dollars 1.61 to dollars 17.27 after the appointment of a new chairman who must tackle the media giant’s financial woes.

Much of the market did well. Among financials, Citigroup posted a dollars 2.54 gain to dollars 39.55, while J.P. Morgan Chase was up dollars 1.64 to dollars 32.59.

3M Company rose dollars 3.77 to dollars 129.87.

Shares in JDA Software fell dollars 12, or more than 44%, to dollars 15 after the company lowered its earnings forecast.

Before the market opened, the Labor Department reported that the nation’s unemployment rate edged up to 5.9% in June, reflecting the lingering effects of last year’s recession.

The increase was expected, but analysts had anticipated that the recovery would be producing considerably more jobs than the 36,000 recorded last month.

Advancing shares led declining shares by more than 15 to 1, with Friday’s volume of 699.3 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange compared with 859.1 million shares on Wednesday.

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller company stocks, rose 11.45, or 2.67%, to 440.92.