Wells Fargo: $3 billion in Earnings Spark Stock Boost

Wells Fargo, which acquired Wachovia Corp. in December, said its larger market share punched up the company's mortgage business during the quarter. The strong performance comes as the housing market showed signs of thawing and home owners rushed to refinance existing loans.

It expects to report earnings of $3 billion, or 55 cents a share, on revenue of about $20 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of 23 cents a share on revenue of $18.98 billion.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 2.6 percent to 846.89 at 11:04 a.m. in New York, poised to advance for a fifth straight week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 175.22, or 2.2 percent, to 8,012.33. Benchmark stock gauges in Germany and Hong Kong added 3 percent as the MSCI World Index of 23 developed nations increased the most in a week.

“The worst is behind us,” said Alan Gayle, a Richmond, Virginia-based senior investment strategist at RidgeWorth Capital Management, which oversees $60 billion. “We’re working our way through the credit crisis and that’s why the market is cheering.”