Economy January-28 2009

Profit reports from U.S. Steel, American Express, chip maker Texas Instruments and movie rental company Netflix offered some assurance that the fourth quarter, though generally terrible for corporate earnings, wasn't the disaster many had feared.
There were still some disappointing earnings, with shares of Delta Air Lines and Verizon Communications falling after their results fell short of Wall Street's expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 58.70 points, or 0.7%, to 8,174.73. On Monday, the index added 38 points on an increase in December of sales of existing homes.

In the financial sector, Bank of America climbed 8.3% and Goldman Sachs Group gained 5.5%. An index of 24 bank stocks rose 3.4%. Shares of many banks also rose after hours on a report that next week the Obama administration might announce a plan to remove bad assets from bank balance sheets.

http://www.latimes.com/business/personalfinance/la-fi-markets28-2009jan28,0,1496011.story