Stock prices rallied strongly today. The Dow jumped 272 points to 11,044, a gain of 2.5 percent. The S&P was up 27 points, while the Nasdaq surged 33.
- President Barack Obama got a question from a group today he was happy to answer. At a town hall, one man asked "would you please raise my taxes?". Later identified as a former Google executive, the man said the U.S. should spend more on education, infrastructure and job training.
- Lockheed Martin is laying off 540 employees in plane-making operations in Texas, Georgia and California. The defense contractor announced in June that it planned to cut 1,500 jobs in response to U.S. government spending prospects.
- A pair of lawsuits just filed claim that Deloitte & Touche, one of the nation's largest accounting firms, should pay $7.6 billion in damages. The suits say it failed during years of audits to detect massive fraud at a now-defunct Florida mortgage company.
- Precious metals prices fell again today. Gold slumped $45, or 2 percent, to close at $1,594.80. Silver dropped 0.4 percent to end at $29.98 an ounce.
© 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. Material may not be redistributed.
.jpg){kind=small}
