The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed a record 499.19 points, or 4.93 per cent, to 10,630.60 at the close of trading yesterday, pushing the tech-heavy Nasdaq index up 134.67 points, or 2.94 per cent to 4,717.29 after three days of losses. The Standard and Poor's 500 rose 66.33 points, or 4.76 per cent, to 1,458.47.

The Dow beat its previous record points rise of 380.53, which it reached on September 8th, 1998.

Investors have been scooping up blue-chip stocks since early in the week after the Nasdaq plummeted 200.71 points on Tuesday and 141 points on Monday. Volume was remarkably heavy on Wall Street with almost 1.5 billion shares changing hands. There were almost three times as many advances (2,431) as declines (646). Another 405 shares were unchanged.

Market volatility helped the bond market, where yield for the 30-year Treasury bond fell to 6.039 per cent against 6.076 per cent Wednesday and the yield for the 10-year bond was down to 6.238 per cent against 6.276. Bond price and yield move in opposite directions.