A government rescue plan for banks saddled with bad debt lifted the markets to a sharply higher open to extend yesterday's rally with the Dow jumping 386 points to 11,406. Nasdaq leaped 100 points to 2299.
On the upside
Shares of troubled insurer American International Group (NYSE: AIG) soared as the government announced plans to rescue banks with bad debt.
An analyst upgraded Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) after the software company announced higher first quarter earnings that topped expectations as revenue rose.
On the downside
Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) widened first quarter losses despite higher revenue and the smartphone maker warned that second quarter revenue drop.
Friedman Billings Ramsey downgraded OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX).
Moody's Investors Service placed MBIA's (NYSE: MBI) insurance unit under review.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 9 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 6 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks skyrocketed 35 points to 758.
