First time applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a two year low to lift the markets to a sharply higher open with the Dow soaring 125 points to 11,162. Nasdaq surged 44 points to 2539.
On the upside
Dynegy (NYSE: DYN) shareholders rejected Blackstone Group's $603 million acquisition offer fueling speculation that the company will be sold at a higher price.
Guess (NYSE: GES) reported higher fourth quarter income that beat analyst expectations as revenue rose.
Morgan Keegan analyst Harsh Kumar lifted his price target on Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) to $75 from $48 and added the company to Morgan Keegan's focus buy list.
On the downside
Telestone Technologies (Nasdaq: TSTC) priced its offering of 1.675 million common shares at $12.00 per share.
The Financial Times reported that Ireland increase its 36% stake in The Governor and Company of The Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) to a majority holding.
TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) widened third quarter losses and warned of even greater losses for the current quarter.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 9 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 9 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 12 points to 732.
