Government's $1 Trillion Plan Boosts Markets

Plans for the government to remove up to $1 trillion in toxic assets from banks sent the markets soaring during the midday with the Dow jumping 298 points to 7576.  Nasdaq leaped 56 points to 1513.

On the upside

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) will take a 31% stake in Central European Media Enterprises (Nasdaq: CETV) for $241.5 million.

Shares of Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE: HOV) rose after the National Association of Realtors reported higher existing home sales last month.

Privately held Stiefel Laboratories retained the services of Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) to find suitors for the pharmaceutical.

Shares of Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE: LYG) and Barclays (NYSE: BCS) both soared after the U. S. government announced plans to remove up to $1 trillion in toxic assets from troubled banks.
 

Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM) introduced two new low power solutions for its digital signal processing technology.

Citi Investment Research analyst Jim Suva upgraded Corning (NYSE: GLW) saying that consumer demand will increase.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 7 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 4 to 1 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks leaped 20 points to 420.