Optimism Over Stimulus Plan Boosts Markets

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

Anticipation that the economic stimulus package will be approved by Congress lifted shares of Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Citigroup (NYSE: C) and J. P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM).

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.