On the upside
The banking sector rallied as details of the plan to remove bad assets from the books of troubled banks were revealed. Shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) extended last week's gains.Petro-Canada (NYSE: PCZ) was the target of a $15.5 billion acquisition offer by Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU). Both companies have delayed projects to develop oil sands resources in Alberta.
Jewelry retailer Tiffany & Company (NYSE: TIF) posted lower 4th quarter results that beat expectations. The company also announced plans to trim 600 jobs or 10% of its workforce in order to cut costs.
The biotech sector rose on the possibility of the Food and Drug Administration splitting into two agencies, one for food safety and one for medical products. Such a move may accelerate the approval of drugs which bodes well for companies like Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Merck (NYSE: MRK).
On the downside
Shares of Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC) failed to join the rally after an analyst downgraded the mobile device maker.
An analyst downgraded A. Schulman (Nasdaq: SHLM), a maker of plastic compounds and resins.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin
of nearly 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The
Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks surged 14 points to 414.
