Stocks surged following a report that Germany and France had reached an agreement to increase the firepower of Europe’s recently overhauled bailout fund. Meanwhile, Standard and Poor’s downgraded two dozen Italian banks with a negative outlook. Tech stocks put in a mostly upbeat performance, but losses from IBM stood out after the tech heavyweight provided a mixed quarterly report that indicated weakening sales to its core business customers. Yahoo, Apple, Intel and Juniper all rose in advance of quarterly results after the market close. In the evening trade Intel and Yahoo edged higher after the report impressed investors, while Apple declined after the co. announced quarterly earnings and sales that fell far short of expectations. Futures fell after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Spain’s government bond ratings to A1 from Aa2, with a negative outlook. Implied volatility inched lower on moderate volumes.NEAREST RESISTANCE LEVELS: 59.3, 58.3, 58.2,
NEAREST SUPPORT LEVELS: 50.0, 53.0, 57.0, 57.9
