Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words dow+stocks. 7 news.

AP - Wall Street advanced sharply Monday, boosted by news that Merrill Lynch & Co. will receive an investment of up to $6.2 billion from two investment groups. The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 100 points.

The Dow industrials jumped by 98.68 points to 13549.33 in an abbreviated pre-holiday session, as financial stocks advanced on optimism that banks and brokerages can find fresh sources of capital, and investors hoped holiday sales will turn out to be stronger than anticipated.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks finished higher in Monday's shortened trading session, aided by a flurry of M&A deals that included a $2.7 billion sale by Alcoa Inc. of its packaging and consumer businesses. In preliminary closing figures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 106 points to 13,555, the S&P 500 Index gained 12 points to end at 1,497 and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 22 points to 2,713, with shares of Apple Inc. approaching the $200-a share mark. Apple's stock ended up 2.8% at $198.80.

If you chose to invest in shares this year and selected Europe as your venue, you probably are licking your wounds right now. Whether you invested through mutual funds, ETFs or picked your own stocks, Europe's exchanges were badly burned by the credit crunch that followed the American subprime mortgage meltdown. London's leading index, the FTSE-100, has returned 4% this year, the Dow Jones Europe gained 6% and France's CAC-40 did much of nothing. The leading Swiss index lost 3% and Sweden's fell 6%. At least Germany stood out from pack, with a 21% leap this year. ...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Technology stocks up slightly Monday morning with Microsoft Corp. and newcomer NetSuite Inc. gaining more than 1%. The Nasdaq Composite Index , the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index were up fractionally. The Dow was ahead more than 60 points.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks opened higher Monday, with shares of blue-chip index component Alcoa Inc. up more than 1.6% after the aluminum giant agreed to sell its packaging and consumer businesses for $2.7 billion. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 59 points, or 0.4%, at 13,509.39. The broader S&P 500 Index rose 5 points, or 0.3%, to 1,489.06 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 5 points, or 0.2%, to 2,697.17. Trading will end early, at 1 p.m. Eastern in observance of the Christmas holiday.

Wall Street advanced sharply Monday, boosted by news that Merrill Lynch & Co. will receive an investment of up to $6.2 billion from two investment groups. The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 100 points.