Stocks reach 2½-year high

Wall Street has been mostly detached from the Egyptian protests, and that continued to be the case today. Simply put, there's not been much concern about the uprising having an impact on the global economy (Egypt is a small player). The Dow did jump about 40 points on news this morning of Mubarak's resignation, but that was about it. The index now stands at 12,273. The oil markets, which have been a bit more volatile because of concerns about getting through the Suez Canal, settled down today, as the price of crude fell.