U.S. Indexes, Oil Surge 1.6%; Allies Bomb Libya

Bikram Pandey
21 Mar, 2011
New York City

U.S. stocks surged after crude oil prices gained and markets in Europe and Asia advanced. AT&T gained after it agreed to acquire for $39 billion T-Mobile and Charles Schwab offered $1 billion for online options trading firm. SunTrust and KyeCorp raised $1.67 billion to repay TARP funds.

[R]10:00 AM New York – U.S. stocks surged after crude oil prices gained and markets in Europe and Asia advanced. AT&T gained after it agreed to acquire for $39 billion T-Mobile and Charles Schwab offered $1 billion for online options trading firm. SunTrust and KyeCorp raised $1.67 billion to repay TARP funds.[/R]

Stocks in early trading surged after markets rallied in Asia and Europe.

The military strike on Libya lifted crude futures but investors bid up the stock after AT&T agreed to acquire T-Mobile for $39 billion and Charles Schwab agreed to buy online options trading firm for $1 billion.

Crude oil futures increased to $102.70 a barrel after France and UK led a military attack to Libyan military targets near Bengazi that killed as many as 150 civilians.

The controversial attack opposed by Turkey, China and Russia and Arab League and African Union called for immediate halt of bombardment.

“What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians,” said Arab League general secretary Amr Moussa.

The Libyan attack commenced on the eight anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

SunTrust and KeyCorp raised $1.67 billion after selling stocks that will help both regional banks to repay TARP funds received from the U.S. Treasury Department in 2008.

Stock Movers

AT&T ((T)) increased 16 cents to $26.37 after it announced a deal to acquire T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion. Deutsche Telekom increased 13% in New York trading.

Sprint Nextel Corporation declined 14% or 72 cents to $4.33.

Citigroup Inc ((C)) increased 3 cents to $4.53 after it announced 1 cent dividend reinstatement from the second quarter and a 10-for-1 reverse stock split.

Charles Schwab Corporation increased 8 cents to $17.64 after it agreed to acquire online options trading firm optionsXpress Holdings, Inc for $1 billion in stocks.

SunTrust Banks Inc ((STI)) sold 35.3 million shares for $29.50 to raise $1.04 billion and KeyCorp ((KEY)) sold 70.6 million shares at $8.85 each to raise $625 million.

SunTrust increased 4.5% and KeyCorp added 1%.