U.S. Stocks Gain on Valuations; Alcoa, Exxon, AT&T Advance By...

U.S. Stocks Gain on Valuations; Alcoa, Exxon, AT&T Advance

By Lynn Thomasson

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rallied, following gains in Asian and European markets, as the cheapest valuations in more than two decades lured investors back into equities.

Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, jumped as much as 6.2 percent after the shares slid to their lowest price- to earnings ratio on record. Exxon Mobil Corp. advanced 4.5 percent and AT&T Inc. rallied 3.2 percent after analysts advised boosting holdings of the companies. Morgan Stanley lost as much as 26 percent on concern Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. needs more money to pay for its stake in the bank.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 13.49 points, or 1.6 percent, to 862.41 at 11:43 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 156.59, or 1.9 percent, to 8,332.36. Hong Kong's benchmark index surged 14 percent, its best gain in 11 years, while Germany's climbed 5.5 percent.

``We're in the camp that believes a bottoming process is in place,'' said Leo Grohowski, chief investment officer for the wealth management unit of Bank of New York Mellon, which manages $162 billion. ``Unless we really thought the banks were going under, there's an awful lot of bad news that is already priced into the shares.''