Four big financial companies that received major government bailouts and are still partly government-owned rose sharply for a second straight day on Wednesday.

Airline stocks extended their rally into a second straight session on Wednesday after UBS raised its full-year estimates for carrier earnings on signs of improving traffic.

Shares of Micron Technology climbed Wednesday after at least two analysts reiterated their upbeat outlooks for the chip maker, saying demand and pricing are working in its favor.

The S&P 500 rose on Wednesday as investors snapped up shares of bailed-out financial companies on hopes the sector may be poised for a recovery as the U.S. economy improves, while a drop in oil producer Chevron’s stock pushed the Dow slightly lower.

Shares of Navistar International fell Wednesday morning, a day after the truck and engine maker reported a sharply lower fiscal first-quarter profit, missing Wall Street targets.

Harbin Electric said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit and sales tripled with help from an acquisition of another Chinese electric-motor maker, and company shares rose 16 percent in midday trading.

Ten years ago today, before the dot-com bubble burst, the Nasdaq composite index hit a record 5,132.52 points — a peak that the technology-heavy market shows no sign of scaling again any time soon.

Shares of InterMune Inc. rose at a blistering pace Wednesday, a day after a federal advisory panel voted in favor of approval for its experimental lung disease treatment.

In September 2008, as Lehman Brothers was breaking into a million pieces, a young investment bank was pushing up through the rubble.

An RBC Capital Markets analyst raised his rating on shares of Alphatec Holdings Inc. Wednesday, saying the spinal device maker’s sales will surge over the next few years due to upcoming products.