Stocks Surge on Wall Street

Stocks surged on Monday after Standard & Poor's said it is not planning on downgrading the credit ratings of troubled bond insurers MBIA (MBI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and Ambac Financial (ABK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating). The Dow gained +189.20, the S&P 500 +18.69, and the Nasdaq Composite +24.13.

In deal news, Electronic Arts (ERTS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) said that it would like to hold talks about a possible takeover of Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) (read more). Take-Two rejected a $2 billion takeover offer by EA yesterday.

Lowe's Companies (LOW | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported earnings of $0.28 per share, beating analysts' predictions of $0.25 per share.

Nordstrom (JWN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported fourth quarter net earnings of $0.92 per share, compared to $0.89 per share a year ago and beating estimates of $0.88 (read more).

Human Genome Sciences (HGSI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) net loss for the fourth quarter widened to -$0.69 per share from -$0.50 per share, worse than estimates of -$0.49 (read more).

LDK Solar (LDK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported net income of $0.44 per share for the fourth quarter, beating estimates of $0.41 (read more).

FirstEnergy (FE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported earnings per share increased to $0.87, from $0.84 per share posted in the prior year quarter, but below estimates of $0.92 (read more).