Tuesday, April 21, 2009

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%, at 7,969. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 18, or 2.1%, at 850. The Nasdaq composite index is up 36, or 2.2%, 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.