New York - US stocks edged higher Monday, while President Barack Obama said the need for hundreds of billions of dollars in Wall Street bail-outs was easing as the economy recovers from recession. In a speech at the historic Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, Obama said there were signs the US economy had turned a corner, and said the government was beginning to extricate itself from a series of dramatic interventions in financial markets.
He spoke one year after the collapse of investment banking giant Lehman Brothers Holdings, a bankruptcy that plunged Wall Street into its worst crisis since the Great Depression.
"Although I will never be satisfied while people are out of work and our financial system is weakened, we can be confident that the storms of the past two years are beginning to break," Obama said.
"In fact, while there continues to be a need for government involvement to stabilize the financial system, that necessity is waning," he said. "The growing stability resulting from these interventions means we are beginning to return to normalcy."
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 21.39 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 9,626.80. The broader Standard and Poor's 500 picked up 6.61 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 1,049.34. The technology- heavy Nasdaq Composite Index earned 10.88 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 2,091.78.
The US currency was fell against the euro to 68.36 euro cents from 68.60 euro cents on Friday and gained to 90.90 Japanese yen from 90.63 yen.
