Shares swelled for the nation's four largest lenders Tuesday, with analysts crediting a rise in construction spending over March for a climb by the stock market to levels not seen in four years.
[IMAGE]The Dow Jones Industrial Average cleared an important psychological hurdle by rising 65 points to 13,279, the highest in four years, according to several outlets.
[COLUMN_BREAK]Shares rose for ""Bank of America"":https://www.bankofamerica.com/ by 2.47 percent accordingly, hitting $8.31 per share. ""Wells Fargo"":https://www.wellsfargo.com/ followed behind by 2.02 percent to reach $34.09 per share.
""JPMorgan Chase"":http://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Home/home.htm scaled to $43.79 per share on a 1.88 percent rise. ""Citigroup's"":http://www.citigroup.com/citi/ shares went up 1.68 percent to end the day at $33.60 per share.
Media outlets and analysts attributed the boon to a leap ahead in confidence for the Chinese and U.S. economies, with a slight rise in construction spending over March responsible for the latter.
The ""Commerce Department"":http://www.commerce.gov/ said Tuesday that construction spending ticked up to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $808.1 billion, 1 percent more than revised estimates of $807.3 billion month-over-month and 6 percent above figures seen in March last year.
Construction spending arrived at $171.2 billion, 6.7 percent above numbers seen in 2011.
Private construction spending closed in on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $531.9 billion, 0.7 percent above February estimates, with residential construction at $244.1 billion in March and public construction at $276.2 billion.