Stocks rallied on news of the U.S. government's decision to invest $20 billion into Citigroup and to guarantee $306 billion of the troubled bank's riskiest assets. The Dow surged nearly 200 points to 8228 while Nasdaq leaped 35 points to 1420.
On the upside
Shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) surged more than 50% and lifted the entire financial services sector, including Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).An analyst felt that Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment (NYSE: DDE) will benefit from legalized sports betting in Delaware.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) offered $438 million in cash to buy Omrix Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: OMRI) to add to its surgical products business.
The alternative energy sector continued to rally on hopes of strong support by the Obama administration. Shares of SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA) and First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) surged.
On the downside
Shares of LandAmerica Financial Group (NYSE: LFG) collapsed after Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF) called off a deal to acquire the title insurer.
Shares of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) edged lower after Bernstein Research cut price targets for U.S. Internet companies.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 5 points to 412.
