NEW YORK — You can almost hear Wall Street exhaling.
The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 300 points Thursday after Republican leaders and President Barack Obama took what investors saw as steps toward ending a 10-day budget standoff that has threatened to leave the U.S. unable to pay its bills.
Wall Street’s hopes for a deal drove the Dow to its biggest point rise this year and ended a three-week funk in stocks. The news also injected some calm into the frazzled market for short-term government debt.