Brick by Brick, the Dow Inches Forward

Bank of America surged to the top of the heap as today's standout performer in the Dow Jones (INDEX: ^DJI) on news that there might be a new financing plan on the horizon for American homeowners. Also finishing strong, but not quite as high were Intel, JPMorgan Chase, and Microsoft.

On the losers' side, Boeing and United Technologies suffered amid a press conference that outlined future defense spending and Chevron sank along with energy peers after Tesoro warned of dismal earnings.

Here's a snapshot of the Dow along with its top and bottom performers.

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

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