US markets rally on positive earnings news from Microsoft; Profit estimates from Countrywide

US stocks rallied after sales from Microsoft topped analyst estimates by 1 billion dollars. Countrywide Financial forecast a profit, easing concerns the economy will slip into a recession.

The report from Countrywide that it expects to return to profitability soon, despite a big third-quarter loss, rekindled investor hope that the problems in the housing market are contained and that US consumers still have spending power. Countrywide surged $ 4.23, or 32%, to $ 17.30. Strong report from Microsoft inspired buying throughout the technology sector. Microsoft rose $ 3.04 to $ 35.03, pushing software companies in the S&P 500 to a 4.1% gain, the steepest advance since April 2003.

The S&P 500 climbed 20.88, or 1.4%, to 1,535.28, its steepest advance this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 134.78, or 1%, to 13,806.7. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 53.33, or 1.9%, to 2,804.19.

For the week, the Dow rose 2.11%, the Nasdaq was up 2.90%, and the S&P 500 jumped 2.31%. The gains were welcome after all three indexes posted losses in the previous week.

After spiking above $ 92 a barrel, December crude futures rose $ 1.40 to settle at $ 91.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures rose $ 16.50 to close at $ 787.50 an ounce, the highest price since January 1980. Energy, metals and agriculture futures all moved higher.

Indian ADRs flare; ICICI Bank up 11%, HDFC Bank up 10%

The strength in the US markets and the good performance by the Indian stocks made sure that the ADRs had a good close. All of them mamangaed to end in the green. The gainers were led by the banks-ICICI and HDFC, which were up 11% and 10% respectively. VSNL was other major gainer rising 9%.

In the technology pack, Infosys Technologies was up 1.32% at $ 49.22, Patni Computers was up 4.18% at $ 22.67, Satyam Computers was up 6.65% at $ 29.84, while Wipro ended the day 3.19% higher at $ 15.87.

In the non-technology pack, HDFC Bank was up 10.18% at $ 125.85, VSNL was up 8.7% at .73, ICICI Bank was up 11.01% at $ 64.64, MTNL was up 1.74% at $ 9.36, Tata Motors was up 4.05% at $ 20.29, Dr Reddy's Lab was up 0.89% at $ 15.92 and Sterlite was up 7.44% at $ 23.97.