Optimism that government's economic stimulus plan will aid the ailing economy lifted the markets to a sharply higher close with the Dow jumping 218 points to 8281. Nasdaq leaped 45 points to 1592.
On the upside
Forbes listed Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) on its America's 25 Fastest Growing Tech Companies.
Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA) announced that the head of its open-source database business will depart the company at the end of next month.
On the downside
Fourth quarter earnings for Intermec (NYSE: IN) fell as revenue dropped.Analysts downgraded Mettler-Toledo International (NYSE: MTD) despite higher fourth quarter earnings as revenue fell.
Viad (NYSE: VVI) blamed a large impairment charge for swinging to a fourth quarter loss and the trade show company warned that first quarter and full year results will fall sharply.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 1 Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks surged 16 points to 471.