Around the World's Markets: New York

AMERICAN stocks rallied sharply as calm in Asian and European markets sent the Dow jumping nearly 100 points at midday, with financial stocks continuing to rebound off their recent battering. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange's bank index was up more than 15 points or 2 per cent to 768.

Hildegard Zagorski, a Prudential Securities analyst said the rally came after a pretty good beating." The Dow Jones surged 98 points to 8,556 at midday.