. >> susie: former tasury secretarhenry paulson is defeing his actions during the financial isis. tomorrow he will tesfy on capitol hill about banof america's coroversial acquisition of merrill lynch paulson releed today his prepared remarks, sang bank of america had no legalasis to nix the merrill deal and doi so would have shown a que, "colossal lack of judgment paulson al says it was appropriate for him toarn b.o.a's c.o. ken lewis that the bank's management could ousted, if irejected the merrill purchase. jeff: investors viewed toda as a colossal buying opportunity, after intel's better-than-expected results last night. the dow opened nearly 100 pots hier at the bell. intel ares leapt 8%, giving the doa 180 point gain by noontime. adding to the bullishness, credit card issuerlike american expre say they're now eing fewer defaults and denquencies. that helped the financia and added more fuel to today rocket ride gher. e dow rose 256.72 points to close at 8,616.21. the sdaq added 63 points to 1,862.90. the s&p 500 gained 26.84oints to 9328. in the bond marketthe 10 year note fel