Stocks surge as Wall Street’s wild week continues

U.S. stocks are powering higher at midday as investors welcome a round of strong company earnings reports.

General Electric, Morgan Stanley and Textron all rose after reporting results that were better than analysts expected.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 300 points, or 1.9 percent, about noon Eastern time.

The market has seen a series of big losses and smaller gains over the past 10 days. Friday’s activity seemed to promise more of the same volatility.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 32 points, or 1.8 percent, to 1,895. The Nasdaq composite rose 70 points, or 1.7 percent, to 4,287, shortly before noon, Eastern time.

European markets also made big gains. France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX each rose 3 percent.

The price of oil rose 59 cents to $83.29 a barrel. It’s still down 3 percent for the week.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.21 percent.

This story was originally published October 17, 2014 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Stocks surge as Wall Street’s wild week continues."