Markets make strong showing Monday

New York -- U.S. markets rallied through the day Monday on a strong report on sales of existing homes, which climbed 2.9 in February.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 187.32 points to 12,548.64, up 1.52 percent by close of trading Monday.

The Standard and Poor's index gained 20.37 points to 1,349.88, up 1.53 percent.

The Nasdaq composite index was up 66.64 points to 2,326.75, up 3.04 percent.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 2,576 stocks advanced and 612 declined on a volume of 1.569 billion shares traded.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 1 24/32 to yield 3.553 percent.

The dollar gained against the yen and broke even with the euro Monday.

The euro traded at $1.5439, unchanged from Sunday, while the dollar traded at 100.72 yen from Sunday's 99.42.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei average lost 2.48 points Monday to 12,480.09, down 0.02 percent.

In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 50.40 points Monday to 5,495.20, down 0.91 percent.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.