Wall Street rallied on Friday as investors are awaiting a US Senate vote on economic stimulus plan and US government's new plan on the financial rescue program.

Markets rose on Friday morning after Senate majority leader Harry Reid said that he believed the Senate would "be able to work something out" on the package.

The Senate struggled on Friday to craft a huge stimulus package to revive the battered economy. Reid said he hoped the Senate would have a final stimulus package to vote on by late Friday afternoon.

Financial stocks jumped as Treasury officials confirmed that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is to deliver a speech on Monday outlining a new plan to overhaul the government's US$700 billion financial rescue program.

Wall Street shrugged off grim employment data. The Labor Department said US employers slashed 598,000 jobs in January, the most since late 1974. The unemployment rate has risen to 7.6 percent, the highest since late 1992.

The Dow industrials rose 194.74, or 2.42 percent, to 8,257.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 18.14, or 2.14 percent, to 863.99, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 34.16, or 2.21 percent, to 1,580.40.

(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2009)