Bargain Hunters Lift Markets To Higher Open

Bargain hunters lifted the markets to a sharply higher open with the Dow leaping 158 points to 11,298.  Nasdaq surged 42 points to 2516.

On the upside

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) fired chief executive officer Carol Bartz and named chief financial officer Tim Morse as interim chief executive.

Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) forecast fiscal 2013 revenue ahead of analyst expectations.

FuelCell Energy (Nasdaq: FCEL) narrowed third quarter losses as revenue surged more than expected.

The European Union approved MELA Sciences' (Nasdaq: MELA) melanoma treatment MelaFind.

On the downside

Urban Outfitters (Nasdaq: URBN) warned that sales for the third quarter dropped.

National Retail Properties (NYSE: NNN) priced its public offering of 8 million common shares at $26.07 per share.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 7 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 8 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks soared 17 points to 698.