Stocks Rise Around the World; Commodities Gain, Treasuries Fall (Cristina Alesci and Adam Haigh)

  March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks rose around the world, commodity prices rallied and Treasuries fell on speculation China will broaden efforts to boost growth and U.S. lawmakers will reach agreement on a plan to stem mortgage defaults.

  The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rebounded from a 12-year low and the Shanghai Composite Index jumped the most in four months. Alcoa Inc., Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. surged more than 9 percent as a former statistics chief said China’s Premier Wen Jiabao will announce a new stimulus package tomorrow, spurring demand for metals. The advance in the U.S. was limited as General Electric Co. slumped 15 percent on concern it will have to raise capital.

  “Stocks are cheap and the sun will rise again,” said Lawrence Creatura, a Rochester, New York-based money manager at Federated Investors Inc., which oversees $407 billion. “There’s a ray of sunshine in two areas: China and housing. It’s an incremental positive for both commodities and housing.”

  The S&P 500 increased 0.9 percent to 702.63 at 10:19 a.m. in New York after slipping below 700 for the first time since October 1996 yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 53.36 points, or 0.8 percent, to 6,779.38. The MSCI World Index rose 1.1 percent to 713.21, as benchmark indexes from Hong Kong to London climbed more than 2 percent.

  Read The Entire Story