Wall Street rallies; Nasdaq hits highest level since 2000

The Nasdaq today closed above 5,000 for the first time since the year 2000 dot-com bubble as tech stocks were boosted by deals, while the S&P 500 and Dow indexes hit records after economic data pointed to a slowly accelerating economy.

After oscillating around it for much of the day, the Nasdaq composite index .IXIC gained steam in the late afternoon to finish firmly above the milestone, marking the third time the index ended above 5,000. The last time was March 10, 2000.

US consumer spending fell for a second month in January, with lower gasoline prices dampening inflation pressure while personal income fell just short of expectations, showing a rise of 0.3 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 155.93 points, or 0.86 percent, to 18,288.63, the S&P 500 gained 12.89 points, or 0.61 percent, to 2,117.39 and the Nasdaq Composite added 44.57 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,008.10.

Across the Atlantic, Europe's top European indexes made fresh multi-year highs today as a boost from merger activity in the telecoms sector more than offset falls in media group Vivendi.

The French media group said today it had agreed to sell its remaining stake in telecoms company Numericable-SFR to Altice at 40 euros per share, well below Numericable-SFR's share price of 55.40 euros on Friday.

Shares in Altice surged 9.9 percent to be the top riser on the FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European shares, which was up 0.2 percent at 1,565.83 points.

Numericable's shares were up 5.5 percent while Vivendi fell 5.5 percent to the bottom of the index despite announcing a share buyback and dividend.

The group plans a share buyback worth 2.7 billion euros at a maximum purchase price of 20 euros per share.

The FTSEurofirst set a fresh seven-year high in early deals after the best start to the year since they started trading in late 1986, driven by the prospect of the European Central Bank's quantitative easing programme set to start in March.

Germany's Dax and Britain's FTSE 100 hit new all-time highs, leaving them in "overbought" territory based on some market indicators.

Merger speculation boosted shares in Telecom Italia , up 2.3 percent after the chief executive of France's Orange said the two companies had been discussing a possible alliance. Orange's shares were flat.

Aside from M&A, Spanish lender Bankia rose 4.3 percent after reporting a 22 percent rise in net profit.

Meanwhile, Japanese stocks closed in today's session at fresh 15-year highs after China's weekend interest rate cut bolstered risk appetite and as the yen weakened, but the gains were limited as investors were cautious of a potentially overheating market.

The Nikkei share average ended 0.2 percent higher at 18,826.88, the highest closing level since April 2000.

The broader Topix gained 0.1 percent to 1,524.97, with 2.17 billion shares changing hands, the lowest level in three weeks. The JPX-Nikkei Index 400 added 0.1 percent to 13,837.41.