Dow up 55 as holiday rally continues

Updated: 7:08 p.m. ET

They were singing our song today: "Have yourself a merry little rally."

The major averages ended higher. The dollar moved. Oil and gold were both higher.

Part of the cheer was holiday-related, to be sure. Some of the cheer is a global sigh of relief that, for today anyway, the potential of a big Korean shootout was lower. North Korea told unofficial envoy Bill Richardson that it was willing to let United Nations inspectors monitor its nuclear program again.

Part of the cheer had to do with the second big deal involving a Canadian bank in a week: Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) is buying Chrysler Financial from buyout giant Cerberus  Capital for $6.3 billion. Last week, Bank of Montreal (BMO) agreed to buy Marshall & Ilsley (MI), a big Midwestern banking company, for $4.1 billion.

Two tech companies -- Jabil Circuit (JBL) and Adobe Systems (ADBE) -- reported big earnings gains and were the top two performers among Standard & Poor's 500 ($INX) stocks.

The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) closed up 55 points to 11,533, its best finish since Aug. 29, 2008, before investment bank Lehman Bros. failed and set off the global financial crisis. The S&P 500 was up 7 points to 1,255, also a 27-month high. And the Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) added 18 points to 2,668, its best close since Dec. 28, 2007.

The Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX.X) rose 11 points to 2,235, its best close since its all-time closing high of 2,238.38 on Oct. 31, 2007. 

Wednesday's market will cope with some important economic reports, including a final estimate on third-quarter Gross Domestic Product, corporate profits, existing-home sales for November and the Federal Housing Finance Agency's October home-price index.

Futures trading suggests a modestly lower open for stocks.

Nike shares tumble
After the close, shares of Nike (NKE) were off more than 5% despite reporting fiscal-second-quarte​r earnings that beat analyst estimates and revenue that was in line with estimates.

The shares were at $87.35, down from a regular close of $92.30, an all-time high. Revenue was up 11% to $4.8 billion. Earnings per shares were up 24% to 94 cents.

Future orders -- to be delivered through April -- were up 11% from a year ago, with North American orders up 16%. But inventories were also up 8% from a year ago.

It may be that the sell-off was simply due to profit-taking.

Windows for tablet PCs?
Microsoft (MSFT) shares were up 0.5% to $28.21 after hours on a Wall Street Journal report that the software giant will discuss a new version of its widely used Windows operating system. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

The new product would target low-power devices such as tablet devices like Apple's (AAPL) iPad.

The software, expected to be demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January, will be adapted to run on microprocessors sold Arm Holdings (ARMH), a British semiconductor company, as well as the technology popularized by Intel (INTC), sources told The Journal.

ARM shares were up 3.3% after hours to $20.43 in New York, after jumping 6.6% to $19.78 in regular trading. Intel was off 1% to $20.90 after hours, on top of a 0.6% decline to $21.10.
 
The software isn't expected to be available for two or more years, The Journal said.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Tues.			Mon.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil			$89.82			$89.37			6.79%			13.18%
(per barrel)
Heating oil			$2.5164			$2.4737			8.61%			18.94%
(per gallon)
Natural gas			$4.0590			$4.2370			-2.89%			-27.15%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline			$2.3985			$2.3778			5.88%			16.83%
(per gallon)
Retail gasoline			$2.9830			$2.9810			4.52%			13.04%
(per gallon; AAA)

Commodities move higher
Crude oil settled up 45 cents to $89.82 a barrel. It peaked at $89.97.

Gold was up $2.70 to $1,388.80. Interest rates were mixed.

Cotton jumped 3.2% to $1.5912 a pound, up 120% since February. Sugar finished up a penny at 39 cents a pound. That's up 56% since a low in May.

The 10-year Treasury yield was 3.326%, down from 3.349% on Monday. The 5-year yield was at 1.962%, up from 1.953% on Monday.

The dollar was higher against major currencies, with the U.S. Dollar Index up 9.7 cents to $81.069. The index measures the dollar against a basket of currencies.

Toronto-Dominion's big deal

Toronto-Dominion's deal to buy auto-finance operator Chrysler Financial from Cerberus Capital Management is its second-largest acquisition.

The purchase includes $5.9 billion in assets and about $400 million in goodwill.  Toronto-Dominion doesn’t intend to issue stock or bonds to finance the acquisition.

Canadian lenders, ranked the soundest by the World Economic Forum, are using their excess capital to expand abroad after asset values plunged following the financial crisis. 

Wall Street likes this deal. Toronto-Dominion shares were up 3.5% to $71.95.

Financials lead the market
The rally was broad, with eight of 10 S&P 500 sectors showing gains. Financials were the market's overall leader, and you can see that in the Dow.

The top three performers were all financial companies: Bank of America (BAC), up 2.9% to $12.98; JPMorgan Chase (JPM), up 2.6% to $41; and American Express (AXP), up 1.7% to $43.23.

Even Deutsche Bank (DB) was higher, up 0.5% to $52.05 in New York. The German banking giant agreed to pay $553.6 million and admit criminal wrongdoing in a long-running probe over tax shelters that prosecutors claim generated billions in false tax losses.

Twenty of the 30 Dow stocks were higher. The laggard was 3M (MMM), down 0.9% to $86.53.

In addition, 66 Nasdaq-100 stocks were higher, led by Adobe and flash-memory maker SanDisk (SNDK), up 4.9% to $51.64. SanDisk was also third among S&P 500 stocks.

Adobe shares rose 6% to $30.93 after the company said late Monday that its profit grew 38% to $285.7 million, or 56 cents per share, beating the 52-cent average estimate of analysts.

Jabil Circuit shares jumped 10.7% to $19.55. Its fiscal-first-quarter​ earnings nearly doubled to $132 million or 61 cents per share, exceeding expectations for 54 cents.

But Darden Restaurants (DRI) shares tumbled 5.7% to $47.54 after the operator of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains offered a weak same-store sales forecast for 2011.

Shares of used-car dealer CarMax (KMX) plunged 7.6% to $33.17, despite reporting third-quarter results that beat expectations. The problem: Gross profit per car was $2,103. Analysts had expected a profit of about $2,190.

Global equities rallied after Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said the nation would back measures aimed at stabilizing European countries struggling with debt. He made the comments at the European Union-China High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue.

Moody's warned that it may cut Portugal's debt rating by as much as two notches. Last week, the rating company said it may downgrade Spain's debt.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Mon.			Fri.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.130%			0.100%			-18.75%			160.00%
5-year Treasury note			1.962%			1.953%			34.02%			-26.95%
10-year Treasury note			3.326%			3.349%			18.91%			-13.45%
30-year Treasury bond			4.431%			4.462%			8.02%			-4.52%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			81.069			80.972			-0.25%			3.64%
British pound			$1.5470			$1.5513			-0.63%			-4.36%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.646			£0.645			0.64%			4.56%
Euro in dollars			$1.310			$1.313			0.84%			-8.59%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.763			€ 0.762			-0.83%			9.40%
U.S. $ in yen			83.963			83.760			0.17%			-9.72%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.685			6.671			-0.13%			-2.06%
yuan
Canada dollar			$0.983			$0.983			0.83%			3.42%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$1.018			$1.018			-0.81%			-3.31%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold			$1,388.80			$1,386.10			0.27%			26.69%
(per troy ounce)
Copper			$4.28			$4.21			11.85%			27.78%
(per pound)
Silver			$29.39			$29.36			4.29%			74.50%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat			$7.6500			$7.6950			17.60%			41.27%
(per bushel)
Corn			$6.0225			$5.9950			13.63%			45.30%
(per bushel)
Crude oil			$89.82			$89.37			6.79%			13.18%
(per barrel)