BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writers
MATTHEW CRAFT, AP Business Writers
NEW YORK – The last time the stock market was this high, the Great Recession was turning a month old, and stocks were pointed toward a headlong descent.
But on Thursday, the market moved swiftly in the other direction. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index soared to its highest level since January 2008 in a rally that seemed destined to mark a milestone: American stocks have come almost all the way back.
A long-anticipated plan to support struggling countries in the European Union provided the necessary jolt, and the gains were extraordinarily broad. European markets surged. Treasury bond prices and the dollar dropped as traders sold low-risk investments. All but 13 stocks in the S&P 500 index were up.