J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s stock soared $4.25, or 8%, in midday trade Friday, putting it on course for the biggest one-day percentage gain in over four years, a day after it closed at a multiyear low. The stock’s run up followed a report in The Wall Street Journal late Thursday that the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, bought 500,000 shares of the bank to help boost investor interest in the beaten down bank sector. The stock was the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s biggest percentage gainer on Friday. The Dow’s second-biggest gainer was Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s stock , which rallied $4.65, or 3.3%. The two stocks’ gains added about 61 points to the Dow’s price, representing about one-quarter of the Dow’s 240-point surge. Through Thursday, the stocks’ combined year-to-date price declines shaved off about 360 points from the Dow, representing about one fifth of the Dow’s 1765-point drop.
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