US STOCKS - Wall St rallies as oil's slide spurs optimism

NEW YORK Aug 8 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped on Friday as the dollar's rally helped push oil prices down to nearly $116 a barrel, reducing inflation fears and improving prospects for stronger business and consumer spending. A slide of nearly $4 in U.S. crude oil prices overshadowed earlier news that Fannie Mae, the biggest buyer of U.S. home mortgages, had posted a steeper-than-expected quarterly loss, fuelled by rising defaults. Big manufacturers gave the biggest boost to the S&P 500, with shares of General Electric and Procter&Gamble gaining more than 2 percent. Microsoft and Cisco Systems also drove the market higher, in a sign of optimism related to business spending. Consumer-oriented companies were standouts, including retailers, with J.C. Penney Co Inc up over 7 percent. Shares of banks also advanced as prospects for... [read full story]