General Motors made a splash with its return to the New York Stock Exchange after a government bailout saved the carmaker from insolvency nearly two years ago. The markets closed sharply higher with the Dow leaping 173 points to 11,181 while Nasdaq soared 38 points to 2514.
On the upside
A possible bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund lifted shares of Allied Irish Banks (NYSE: AIB) and The Governor and Company of The Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE).
Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) may spinoff Rainbow Media Holdings in 2011.
SIGA Technologies (Nasdaq: SIGA) applauded the government's decision to conduct a market survey for smallpox antiviral suppliers and reiterated its assertion that SIGA is the best candidate to supply to government with the smallpox antiviral.
On the downside
Aastrom Biosciences (Nasdaq: ASTM) reported disappointing results from a midstage clinical trial of its critical limb ischemia treatment.
SmartHeat (Nasdaq: HEAT) priced its offering of 5 million common shares at $5 per share.
Shares of Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) fell after the Federal Reserve announced that large banks must undergo another series of stress tests.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 13 points to 720.
