NEW YORK (AP) Stocks rallied after the threat of an immediate U.S. attack on Syria became less likely.
President Barack Obama is seeking to convince lawmakers about the need to respond to last month's alleged sarin gas attack outside Damascus, and has requested congressional authorization for limited military strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
The U.S. last week appeared ready to strike Syria for the attacks. That rattled the stock market and pushed up the price of oil to its highest level in more than two years. Government bonds also rallied as investors sought out the safest securities.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 109 points, or 0.75 percent, to 14,922 in early trading Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 gained 17, or 1 percent, to 1,649. The Nasdaq composite gained 43, or 1.3 percent, to 3,634.
Microsoft fell $1.70, or 5.1 percent, to $31.73 after the company said it would pay $7.2 billion to acquire Nokia's line-up of smartphones and a portfolio of patents and services. The company is struggling to capture a slice a slice of the lucrative mobile computing market that is dominated by Apple and Google.
