Auto Bailout Agreement Reached, Markets Up

The markets closed modestly higher after an agreement was reached on the $15 billion bailout of the auto industry.  The Dow climbed 70 points to 8761 while Nasdaq gained 18 points to 1565.

On the upside

Private equity firm Green Courte Partners will pay approximately $438 million to acquire American Land Lease (NYSE: ANL).

Ivory Investment Management, which owns 1.5% of Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), urged the Internet services provider to set aside differences and reopen negotiations with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in order to sell its search operations to Microsoft.

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) will increase its cash base.

On the downside

Bloomberg News reported that XL Capital (NYSE: XL) retained the services of Goldman Sachs to explore a possible sale of the company.

RBC Capital Markets downgraded Nova Chemicals (NYSE: NCX).

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) confirmed that the insurer was in the process of resolving nearly $10 billion in bad investments.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 11 points to 476.