NEW YORK -- Wall Street rose modestly in early trading today after Bank of America Corp. posted results that beat expectations, raising hope the credit crisis might be easing for the nation's biggest retail banks.
The nation's second-biggest bank by assets reported that higher investment banking and record revenue helped drive results during the second quarter. With BofA's results, four of the nation's five biggest banks have now reported better-than-expected earnings.
Investors also were optimistic that mergers and acquisitions, which have been sluggish since the credit crisis began last year, might be reviving. Swiss drug maker Roche Holding announced plans to acquire the stake in Genentech Inc. it doesn't already won for $43.7 billion, making it the seventh-largest pharmaceuticals company in the U.S.
However, for the time being it appears that Yahoo Inc. has staved off an attempt by activist shareholder Carl Icahn to take control of the Internet company. Icahn, who has argued in favor of selling Yahoo to Microsoft Corp., will become a Yahoo director along with two of his nominees.
There are a number of key earnings reports expected during the day, including Apple Inc., drug makers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp., and chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. Some 158 members of the Standard & Poor's 500 index and 10 members of the Dow Jones industrials are slated to post results this week.
In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 40.47, or 0.35 percent, to 11,537.04.
Broader indexes were also higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 3.66, or 0.29 percent, to 1,264.34; and the Nasdaq composite rose 5.89, or 0.26 percent, to 2,288.67.
On Friday, Wall Street closed out an impressive week: The Dow rose 3.57 percent, the Nasdaq increased 1.95 percent, and the S&P rose 1.71 percent.
