Markets Open Up; Geithner Faces Senators

Wall Street looks to recoup some of its steep Inauguration Day losses from yesterday, opening up across the boards.

In the first 20 minutes of trading, the Dow is up about 80 points, or 1 percent, pushing back up through the 8,000 floor, crashed through during yesterday's 4 percent dive.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are both also up more than 1 percent.

Today's big news is the Senate confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary-designee Tim Geithner, which is set to start at 10 a.m. Geithner admitted to more than $40,000 in mistakes on this tax returns -- returns he prepared himself (yes, Treasury oversees the IRS) -- but the gaffes are not expected to hold up Geithner's confirmation.

Still, Geithner, in his roles as president of the New York Fed, was a key architect of the $700 billion federal government bailout/rescue plan, which has drawn sharp criticism from some lawmakers, some of whom sit on the Senate Finance committee, which will question Geithner.

-- Frank Ahrens
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