Stocks Rebound on Hopes for Obama Jobs Plan

U.S. stocks opened higher on Wednesday with reports indicating that President Barack Obama is planning a $300 billion package to boost jobs and Germany’s top court smoothed the way for Berlin’s participation in bailout packages.  After a three-session losing run, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 142.51 points to 11,281.81. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 16.94 points to 1,182.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 39.70 points to 2,513.53.

President Barack Obama plans to propose sparking job growth by injecting more than $300 billion into the economy next year, mostly through tax cuts, infrastructure spending and direct aid to state and local governments.

Germany’s top court handed its country’s parliament a greater say over euro zone bailouts, potentially hampering Berlin’s ability to act decisively against a debt crisis which Chancellor Angela Merkel said needed a fundamental rethink to solve.The Constitutional Court rejected a series of lawsuits aimed at blocking the participation of Europe’s biggest economy in emergency loan packages but said the government must get approval from parliament’s budget committee before granting such aid.

Yahoo Inc. said Tuesday its board of directors has removed high-profile Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz from the helm of the company. In a statement, Yahoo said that Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse has been named interim CEO, but will also continue in his CFO role.

Embattled Bank of America Corp. shook up its management ranks on Tuesday, announcing that two key officers will leave and promoting two others to share the chief operating officer role.

Treasury prices fell on Wednesday, pushing long-term yields up and reversing some of the recent drop as equities and other assets deemed riskier bounced, reducing demand for the relative safety of U.S. debt for the moment.

Oil prices rose to near $87 a barrel Wednesday. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for October delivery was up 72 cents to $86.74 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.