Stocks Open to the Upside

Wall Street opens higher as investors look to consumer confidence data and take in a $5 billion capital infusion for GMAC.

Author:: Elizabeth Trotta
Publish date:: Dec 30, 2008 9:40 AM EST

Stocks in New York opened to the upside Tuesday, as the government refueled

General Motor's

(GM) - Get Report

financing arm and investors looked to the release of consumer confidence data.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

was up 58 points at 8541, and the

S&P 500

was gaining 5 points at 874. The

Nasdaq

was up 9 points at 1519.

The Treasury Department said it will provide $5 billion to

GMAC Financial Services

, GM's auto and mortgage financing arm, to keep it from filing for Chapter 11. In return for the capital infusion, the government will receive preferred shares that pay an 8% dividend and warrants to purchase additional shares. The Treasury will also extend up to $1 billion to GM, enabling the company to purchase additional equity as GMAC strives to raise more capital.

The

Federal Reserve

last week approved GMAC's application to become a bank holding company, a designation that would give the company access to government programs, including Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.

Later today, the Chicago purchasing managers' report and the first consumer confidence figures since the Christmas holiday (also the last of the year) will be released.

Fallout from a lackluster holiday sales season continues to play out in the retail sector.

Parent Co.

(KIDS) - Get Report

, which operates etoys.com, is the latest victim to fall, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week.

Stocks in New York ended with modest losses Monday following the scuttled joint venture between

Kuwait's government

and

Dow Chemical

(DOW) - Get Report

Oil was recently down 45 cents at $39.57 a barrel, after rising above $40 a day prior on the possibility that Israeli attacks in Gaza could lead to restrictions in regional supply.

In other commodities, gold was recently down $5.80 at $869.50 an ounce.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were recently falling. The 10-year note was giving up 7.5/32 to yield 2.1%, and the 30-year was down 12/32, yielding 2.7%. The dollar was weaker against the euro and, and stronger against the pound and yen.

Overseas, European exchanges such as the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt were registering slight gains. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei ended higher while and Hong Kong's Hang Seng nudged lower.