Bargain hunters boosted the markets to a sharply higher close after yesterday's sell-off with the Dow rocketing 485 points to 10,851. Nasdaq jumped 99 points to 2082.

On the upside

After selling most of its banking operations to Citigroup (NYSE: C) yesterday, Wachovia (NYSE: WB) reassured investors that the remaining businesses including retirement services, asset management and retail brokerage were well capitalized.

Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell said that Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) stock oversold and maintained his Buy rating as well as his $98 target price for the online retailer.

JMP Securities analyst Samuel Wilson upgraded Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) citing the company's valuation after yesterday's sell-off.

Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) announced the elimination of 29 positions in its lending unit.

On the downside

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks leaped 22 points to 680.