Stocks opened sharply higher then, following a slight pullback in the opening hour of trading, tacked on gains throughout the session. The market, coming off its worst two-week losing streak in more than two years, has now had its best two-day gain since November 2016. The market had fallen more than 10% from its all-time highs, but with its recent run is now just 7.5% away from its highs. Oil prices rallied in the early going as well, but closed off their best levels with a very small advance. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the Treasury said that the U.S. posted a $49.2B budget surplus for January, less than expected and below the $51.3B surplus in the same month a year ago. Meanwhile, President Trump unveiled his infrastructure plan, which details his vision to turn $200B in federal money into $1.5T for fixing America’s infrastructure by leveraging local and state tax dollars and private investment. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of CSRA (CSRA) jumped 31% to $40.39 after the company announced an agreement to be acquired by General Dynamics (GD) for $40.75 per share in cash. The news also sent several other government service stocks higher, including Leidos (LDOS), CACI (CACI), SAIC (SAIC) and Booz Allen (BAH). Harris (HRS), however, underperformed following the news, as Citi analyst Jonathan Raviv pointed out there may have been some takeout speculation baked into its shares. Harris finished the day with a small fractional advance that was behind the other stocks in the group… Amazon (AMZN) made headlines as the Seattle Times reported that the company plans to lay off hundreds of corporate employees at its Seattle headquarters and Reuters said the e-commerce giant paid about $90M to acquire security camera firm Blink late last year… Meanwhile, penny-stock Sunrise Telecom (SRTI) surged 82% higher after the company announced that it was changing its name to SRTI Blockchain Generation, “reflecting the company’s newfound commitment to becoming a player in the evolution of blockchain technology.” MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Collegium Pharmaceutical (COLL), which gained 8.5% after Purdue Pharma announced that it will no longer promote its opioid products, including OxyContin, to doctors. Among the noteworthy losers was Lumber Liquidators (LL), which dropped 9% after Wedbush analyst Seth Basham downgraded the stock to Neutral from Outperform. Also lower was Ulta Beauty (ULTA), which slid 4% following a report that the company is being sued and accused by a shopper of repackaging returned, used products and putting them back on shelves. INDEXES: The Dow rose 410.37, or 1.7%, to 24,601.27, the Nasdaq gained 107.47, or 1.56%, to 6,981.96, and the S&P 500 advanced 36.45, or 1.39%, to 2,656.00.
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