Wachovia's Steel Soothes Street (Update3)

Updated from 9:59 a.m. EDT.

Robert Steel, Wachovia's (WB Quote) new CEO, seems to have no qualms about diving head first into the mortgage-troubled bank's problems and assuaging investors that it would not have to raise additional outside capital.

Shares of the beleaguered Charlotte, N.C., bank were rising 7.4% Tuesday afternoon to $14.15, after Steel -- who joined the bank a little more than two weeks ago after serving as undersecretary of the Treasury -- said a common stock issuance was "not on the plan."

"We're raising lots of capital by reducing the dividend, managing our expenses and running our businesses better and that's the plan for now," Steel said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday morning. ...