Bank News, Mild Econ. Data Boost Stocks

By JOE BEL BRUNO

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street has kicked off the second quarter with a huge rally - a gain of nearly 400 points in the Dow Jones industrials. Investors had a surge of optimism that the worst of the credit crisis has passed.

Financial stocks were among the big winners after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Switzerland's UBS AG issued new shares to bolster their balance sheets. The better tone in the market sent many financial companies higher - Citigroup Inc. shot up 10 percent, JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose 7 percent, and Lehman surged 16 percent.

Wall Street also got a boost from better-than-expected economic data.

The Dow rose 391 points to the 12,654 level, according to preliminary calculations.

On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com