Stocks rally ahead of Bernanke speech

Stocks shot up in early trading on Wall Street as investors awaited a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. economic reports.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 109 points, or 0.8%, to 13,110 shortly after the opening bell. The Dow reversed its Thursday losses.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 11 points, or 0.8%, to 1,411. The Nasdaq was up 22 points, or 0.7%, to 3,070.

Bernanke was to speak at a central bank conference in Wyoming on Friday morning. Investors will be looking for hints that a third round of monetary stimulus called quantitative easing may be coming, as well as what other steps the Fed may take.

European stocks were rallying, with French, Spanish and German indexes up more than 1%. Investors are also focused on developments from the Eurozone, whose leaders have yet to fix the monetary union’s debt crisis.

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