Confidence In Obama Lifts Markets
Despite bleak economic reports, the markets surged to close sharply higher as investors gain confidence in President-elect Obama's economic team and stimulus plan. The Dow leaped 247 points to 8727 while Nasdaq soared 67 points to 1532.
On the upside
In a pretrial ruling, a judged determined that several chipmakers violated patents held by Rambus (Nasdaq: RMBS) covering computer memory.
Shares of DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) surged after Motley Fool spotlighted the drybulk carrier as attractively valued.
Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI) introduced its official National Professional Paintball League Championship 2009 game for the Xbox 360, Playstation and Wii.
The Treasury Department infused American International Group (NYSE: AIG) with $40 billion in exchange for preferred stock and warrants to purchase common shares.
A new study found that Apple's iPhone (Nasdaq: AAPL) is more reliable than Research in Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry with the BlackBerry experiencing a failure rate twice that of the iPhone.
On the downside
Pimco California Municipal Income Fund II (NYSE: PCK) warned that the economic downturn may force the fund to delay paying its November dividend.
