Stocks rallied broadly at the open as Americans across the country lined up to vote.

The Dow Jones industrial average shot up nearly 200 points, to 9,523, a gain of about 2.2 percent. All but one of the 30 stocks in the Dow were higher; the lone exception was Hewlett-Packard.

Similar gains were seen on the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, which was up more than 2 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index, up about 1.4 percent.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index in Britain, the CAC 40 in France, and the DAX in Germany all were up more than 2 percent. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index soared more than 6 percent earlier today.

Long lines were reported at polling stations across the country as voters settled the question of whether Barack Obama or John McCain will succeed President Bush in January. It is a dubious prize: Whichever candidate succeeds, he will face a brutal economy. Unemployment is rising, output is falling, credit is tight, profits are shrinking, and consumers are as tightfisted as they have been in several generations.