Stocks Tear Higher on Obama Stimulus Hope

Stocks continue to tear higher today on hopes of a massive economic stimulus plan from incoming President Barack Obama. In addition, the markets have acted well in the face of negative news, including job losses. Also the monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve is expected to take hold. Heading into the close, the Dow is up 370 points and crossed back above the 9,000 level for the first time in a month. The Nasdaq is up 72 point and the S&P 500 is up 40 points.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" this weekend, Obama indicated that he is ready to swiftly add jobs with state infrastructure projects that are "shovel ready." Obama did not indicate an amount that will be asked for under his plan, but some estimate it could be as high as $700 billion. Obama said we can't worry short-term about the deficit.

The markets rallied last Friday following a jobs report which showed the U.S. economy lost the most jobs since 1974.

Auto stocks continued to rally on expectations the government will provide $15 billion in loans as a short-term solution to stave off a bankruptcy of General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Chrysler LLC.

Commodity stocks, which have been some of the worst performers, were on the rise today: United States Steel (NYSE: X) was up 28%, Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) was up 19% and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) was up 23%.

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