Stocks rose Wednesday, recording gains for the sixth time in the last seven sessions, after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would purchase up to $300 billion in long-term Treasury bonds. A U.S. House of Representatives financial subcommittee was meeting Wednesday to discuss the $170 billion government rescue of insurance giant American International Group (AIG). AIG chief executive Edward Liddy told lawmakers that he thinks the company's controversial bonuses were “distasteful” but necessary because of legal obligations and competition to retain top talent. However, Liddy said he would ask employees who received bonuses of $100,000 or more to give back half the money. AIG has been the target of a public backlash over the bonuses. President Barack Obama criticized the company again on Wednesday, and lawmakers are pursuing ways to block or tax the bonuses. In corporate news, IBM is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems for at least $6.5 billion in a deal that would create a rival in the computer server business to challenge Hewlett-Packard. In economic news, U.S. consumer inflation rose 0.4 percent in February, and the U.S. current-account deficit—the broadest measure of trade and investment flows—fell for the second consecutive year in 2008. Light sweet crude oil for April delivery fell $1.02 to $48.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the U.S. government said inventories of gasoline jumped last week. The U.S. dollar fell to a two-month low versus the euro. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.88, or 1.2 percent, to 7,486.58. Shares of IBM fell 2.5 percent on news of its acquisition talks. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 16.23, or 2.1 percent, to 794.35. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 29.11, or 2 percent, to 1,491.22. Shares of Sun Microsystems jumped 80 percent. The New York Stock Exchange composite index rose 107.16 to 4,975.30. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 9.01 to 1,327.73. And the Russell 2000 index rose 14.04 to 417.63.
