LONDON (ShareCast) - Wall Street is flying high Monday lunchtime as Bernard Madoff is handed a 150-year sentence for running a $50bn ponzi-style investment fraud.
Tech majors and oil plays are leading the Dow Jones (news)
advance.
Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ - news) and
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - news) are up 3% and 2% respectively.
There are also big gains for Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM - news) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX - news) as oil prices hit $71 a barrel in New York. Only three of the 30 Dow constituents are lower at midday.
Across the markets, the Dow Jones is 87 points higher at 8,526, the tech-laced Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: news) is 11 better at 1,849, while the broader S&P 500 is up 7 at 926.
The market will be closed on Friday for Independence Day.
Convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff will spend the rest of his life in prison for a pyramid scheme that conned investors out of $50bn (£30.3bn).
Madoff, 71, who pleaded guilty in March, had asked for a lenient 12 year sentence to reflect his life expectancy.
In other news, employment consulting firms Watson Wyatt and Towers Perrin yesterday agreed to merge in a $3.5bn deal.
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