Banks pull stock market higher after sell-off
4/21/2009NEW YORK Stocks are ending sharply higher after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner eased investors' worries about bank balance sheets.
Geithner's testimony before a congressional oversight committee that "the vast majority" of banks have enough capital pulled stocks from a slump that began with a sell-off Monday.
The Dow Jones industrial average is up 127 points, or 1.6 percent, at 7,969. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 18, or 2.1 percent, at 850. The Nasdaq composite index is up 36, or 2.2 percent, at 1,644.
Four stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.6 billion shares.