Stock Market SOARS UPWARD on WAR news!!!!!!

NEW YORK, March 17 (Reuters) - Stocks jumped on Monday, pushing the blue-chip Dow up 8 percent since the rally began last week, as investors bet a U.S.-led military strike on Iraq would be swift and decisive.


President George W. Bush will issue an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein on Monday night that the Iraqi president step down or face war, the White House said. Wall Street believes war would end quickly and leave the U.S. economy relatively unscathed.

"There is a percentage of traders who want to get in now, thinking if we are very successful, very quickly they will have missed the opportunity," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView, which oversees about $1 billion.

From the launch of the air campaign on Jan. 16, 1991, during the first Gulf War through the end of that year, the Wilshire 5000, the broadest measure of U.S. stock market performance, gained 37 percent.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average (CBOT:^DJI - News) jumped 281.58 points, or 3.58 percent, to 8,141.29, with all but one of the 30 components advancing, according to the latest figures. The broad Standard and Poor's 500 (^GSPC - News) climbed 29.39 points, or 3.53 percent, to 862.66, while the tech-laced Nasdaq Composite Index (NasdaqSC:^IXIC - News) rallied 51.12 points, or 3.81 percent, to 1,391.45.