Wall Street: Thursday close

HSBC's surprising grab for

Some of the advance came from financial services shares benefiting from the £9bn HSBC offer. The Nasdaq leapt 50.18 points or 3.7% to 1411.52 as techs found broad support.

Household shares leapt $5.04 or 22% to $27.50, still less than half their high of $63 of six months ago. The company, which makes loans principally to consumers with poor credit ratings, has been having a difficult time as its client base has been hit by job lay-offs and credit uncertainty in a sluggish economy. HSBC's US shares eased $1.85 or 3.3% to $54.20 as analysts questioned the wisdom of the all-share offer.

American Express, up $1.75 or 5% to $36.95, was among financial services shares re-evaluated in light of the Household deal. Citigroup gained $1.14 or 3.3% to $36.14, JP Morgan added 97 cents or 4.6% to $21.92 and General Electric, which has a big consumer financing arm, rose 41 cents or 1.7% to $24.50.

Techs gained, helped by a $9bn stock buyback announcement by Intel, which climbed $1.09 or 6% to $19.21. Microsoft was marked up $1.63 or 3% to $56.99 and Hewlett-Packard jumped 79 cents or 5% to $16.90.

Dell rose 89 cents or 3% to $30.94, but fell 2.7% after reporting quarterly numbers in line with expectations.

Helping sentiment was word from Washington that retail sales rose 0.7% in October, double the rate expected by economists and the biggest gain in six months. But the number - which contrasted with recent dips in consumer confidence - failed to excite investors in the sector. Wal-Mart inched ahead 59 cents or 0.2% to $55.11.

Advertising giant Interpublic tacked on 81 cents or 6.4% to $13.39 after it disclosed that it was restating its profits as expected. Energy giant ExxonMobil rebounded $1.10 or 3.3% to $34.50 after recent weakness due to sliding oil prices.