It took strong earnings and IPOs and a merger to snap the stock market out of its funk Wednesday.
Oracle had to beat Wall Street estimates and raise guidance just to give its stock a 3% boost, and Andrew’s
acquisition by CommScope
encouraged speculators to get back into stocks.
Web.com gained on a merger agreement with Website Pros
.
And Data Domain and ComScore
gave the market two stellar IPOs to cheer, gaining 66% and 42%, respectively, in their first day of trading.
Traders still have one more hurdle to get over this week: the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates is due out Thursday afternoon, although personal spending and income data on Friday will be watched for growth and inflation hints.
Netflix rose after settling a patent dispute with Blockbuster.
Spectrum Control and SMSC
jumped on their earnings reports, while Park Electrical
fell on its numbers.
Red Hat gained ahead of its results — then slipped in after-hours trading despite beating estimates.
The Nasdaq surged 31 to 2605, the S&P 500 gained 13 to 1506, and the Dow jumped 90 to 13,427. Volume rose to 3.34 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.11 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancing issues led by a 24-8 margin on the NYSE, and 21-9 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 79% on the NYSE, and 83% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 55-141 on the NYSE, and 110-99 on the Nasdaq.
