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Morning Market Movers: How Are Markets Responding to Yesterday's House Vote?

Morning Market Movers: How Are Markets Responding to Yesterday's House Vote?

Here’s what’s shaking:

Stocks:

The "fiscal cliff" compromise, for all its chaos and controversy, was enough to send the stock market shooting higher Wednesday, the first trading day of the new year.

All the major U.S. stock indexes swelled by at least 2 percent. For the Dow Jones industrial average, up 263 points soon after the market opened, it was the biggest surge in six months.

Stocks around the world also leapt higher. The major indexes in Britain, France and Germany rose more than 2 percent, and Greece and Spain were up by more than 3 percent. Stocks in Asia also surged.

In the U.S., the rally was extraordinarily broad. For every stock that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, roughly 18 rose.

The Dow was up 263 at 13,369 after the first 45 minutes of trading. The S&P 500 was up 30 to 1,456. The Nasdaq composite was up 82 to 3,102.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose sharply, to 1.84 percent from 1.75 percent, as investors dumped safe harbor investments like U.S. government bonds and plowed money into stocks. The dollar fell against the euro and prices for oil and other commodities rose.

OIL:

The price of oil jumped on Wednesday, as traders cheered a deal in Washington to avert the "fiscal cliff."

In morning trading benchmark crude for February delivery rose $1.14 to $92.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil followed the stock market higher, where major indexes were up about 2 percent.

But the nation's budget problems are far from over. There are still many more hurdles to cross, including a new deadline for spending cuts in two months. Oil analyst Phil Flynn says in the meantime, "ignorance is bliss and this deal should propel oil...near $96 a barrel."

Brent crude, used to price various kinds of international oil, was up 96 cents to $112.07 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Markets:

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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