U.S. Stocks Soar as Oil Prices Sink Lower

Updated from 8:04 a.m. EDT

Stocks in New York leapt out of the gate Tuesday, after a weaker-than-feared Hurricane Gustav failed to cause major oil-supply disruptions over the holiday weerkend, sending the price of crude substantially lower.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

soared 231 points to 11,774, and the

S&P 500

jumped 17 points to 1300. The

Nasdaq

added 40 points to 2408.

As trading got underway for the Labor Day-shortened week, the price of crude oil was plummeting $8.29 to $107.17, after Gustav hit the Louisiana coast but largely spared New Orleans and energy-production facilities in the area. Gold was down $36.50 to $798.70.

As for corporate news, Internet company

Google

(GOOG) - Get Alphabet Inc. Class C Report

said it will develop its own Web browser in an effort to compete with

Microsoft

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.

Elsewhere in technology,

Alcatel-Lucent

(ALU)

appointed Ben Verwayyan, former head of

BT Group

, as its new CEO. Alcatel-Lucent also selected Philippe Camus to be its nonexecutive chairman.

Meanwhile,

Bloomberg

reported that Korea Development Bank is holding discussions to buy a stake in struggling brokerage

Lehman Brothers

(LEH)

, continuing a rumor that has been around for the past couple of weeks but has yet to be confirmed.

Away from stocks, longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were trading lower. The 10-year note was down 13/32 to yield 3.86%, and the 30-year was losing 20/32, yielding 4.46%. The dollar was rising sharply against the euro, yen and pound.

Turning to the day's economic data, traders will receive the U.S. Census Bureau's look at July construction spending, as well as the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index.

Overseas, European indices were looking strong, as the FTSE in London and the Dax in Frankfurt posted gains. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei was dropping, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was slightly higher.