Passage of the Senate banking reform bill provided a measure of certainty with investors gaining enough confidence to lift the markets to a higher close with the Dow soaring 125 points to 10,193. Nasdaq leaped 25 points to 2229.
On the upside
Eagle Rock Energy (Nasdaq: EROC) unitholders approved the Global Transaction Agreement allowing the company to close the sale of its Minerals Business for $174.5 million.
Shares of Zale (NYSE: ZLC) rose ahead of its earnings release next week.
Shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) all rose after passage of the Senate banking reform bill provided certainty for investors to make informed decisions.
The Federal Trade Commission expects Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) mobile advertising network iAd to compete against Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and therefore approved Google's acquisition of AdMob.
Moody's Investors Service lifted its outlook on Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) and affirmed its corporate rating on the casino operator.
On the downside
Micromet (Nasdaq: MITI) will provide updated results on several BiTE antibody development programs at two medical conferences in June.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks gained 9 points to 649.
