The markets opened higher ahead of a second vote by the House on the government's $700 billion rescue package. The Dow climbed 135 points to 10,618 while Nasdaq surged 41 points to 2018.
On the upside
Shares of Wachovia Bank (NYSE: WB) leaped after Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) offered $15.1 billion in stock to buy the troubled bank. Earlier this week, Citigroup (NYSE: C) and the government's Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. arranged to buy Wachovia's deposits and banking operations.
American International Group (NYSE: AIG) announced plans to sell non-core assets in order to start paying off its $85 billion debt to the government.
A federal court upheld anemia drug patents owned by Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) which hoped to block sales of a competing drug by Roche.
On the downside
Penn National Gaming (Nasdaq: PENN) posted lower 3rd quarter earnings. Analysts promptly downgraded the casino operator.Resources Connection (Nasdaq: RECN) reported higher revenues and earnings, but U.S. growth was flat. The company provides accounting, legal and human resource services.
Russian mogul Oleg Deripaska was reportedly selling his 20% stake in Canadian car parts maker Magna International (NYSE: MGA) to creditors due to other portfolio losses.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 10 points to 647.
