Rocket Stocks, Geithner Nominated, Citigroup Sinks

Stocks surged today, in the final hour, after flirting with break even for most of the day. The sharp rally was sparked by news that President-elect Obama nominated New York Federal Reserve President, Timothy Geithner for Treasury Secretary. This welcomed rally was despite Charles Evans', Chicago Fed President, dire proclamation that the economy is in for a protracted period of poor performance. The DJIA rocketed +494.13 to 8046.26, the Nasdaq soared +68.23 to 1384.35 and the S&P 500 broke the technically critical 800 level, ending the day up +47.59 to 800.03.

Alcoa (AA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - The recently beat down aluminum company led the DJIA higher with a gain of 23.65% or $1.61 to $8.46 after rebounding from 3 year lows.

Citigroup (C | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - Continued its decent today falling 19.32% or 0.91cents to $3.80/share after the CEO stated he would not break up the company.

Microsoft (MSFT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - Jumped 12.26% or $2.15 to $19.68/share after being upgraded by Oppenheimer to outperform.

Sprint (S | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - Soared 24.82% or 0.34 cents to $1.71/share upon news that an insider bought 50,000 shares.

Gold climbed $43.10 to $791.80, oil moved ahead by 0.51 cents to $50.23 and the VIX index slipped 10.13% to 72.67.

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