国际英语新闻：Dow eyes 12,000 amid optimism

NEW YORK, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. stocks jumped on Monday, driven by technology and materials stocks, as well as optimism of investors toward the State of the Union address, which will be delivered by President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

The blue-chip Dow rose near the psychologically important 12, 000, pulled higher by natural resources stocks like Alcoa, while the Nasdaq gained more than 1 percent on large-cap tech shares.

Stocks were led by natural resource companies on bets on global growth and a share-buyback plan by Intel Corp. that lifted the large-cap technology sector. Intel increased its dividend and said it would buy back more of its stock.

The market was also boosted by optimism of investors toward the State of the Union speech. President Obama will make his second State of the Union address on Tuesday night. There were indications that Obama will call for bipartisan "shared sacrifice" and reduce the corporate tax. Investors believed it will be a positive signal.

American Express Co. reported its fourth-quarter profit rose 48 percent as card users spent more and got better about paying their bills.

The card issuer said net income rose to 1.06 billion dollars, or 88 cents per share. Revenue rose 13 percent to 7.32 billion dollars.

Earnings include 113 million dollars in charges announced last week related to the elimination of about 500 jobs in its customer service operations. Excluding the charges, profit came to 94 cents per share.

McDonald's fourth-quarter net income rose 2 percent as it brought in more customers with its McRib sandwich and an addition to its successful McCafe coffee lineup. The strong results were obviously enough to persuade investors.

Meanwhile, the government said it will sell 465.1 million warrants it holds from Citigroup Inc. in an auction on Tuesday. It was the latest effort to recoup costs from the 700 billion dollars financial bailout.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 108.68 points, or 0.92 percent, to 11,980.52. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 7.49 points, or 0.58 percent, to 1,290.84 and the Nasdaq was up 28.01 points, or 1.04 percent, to 2,717.55.