On the upside
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) offered to sell $7.5 billion in stock at $22 a share. Investors were relatively optimistic that the bank will raise the money in order to meet balance sheet requirements set by the federal governmentShares of Fifth Third Bankcorp (Nasdaq: FITB) surged after analysts upgraded the regional bank.
Covidien (NYSE: COV) offered $440 million in cash to buy medical device maker VNUS Medical (Nasdaq: VNUS).
On the downside
Delta Petroleum (Nasdaq: DPTR) announced plans to raise $225 million at $1.50 a share with participation by existing investors.
DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) announced plans to raise up to $475 million in addition to $500 million that it had previously announced in January. Analyst promptly downgraded the stock.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks surged 11 points to 504.