The European Central Bank’s 60 billion euro per month bond buying program sent the markets soaring to a sharply higher close with the Dow rocketing 259 points to 17,813. Nasdaq leaped 82 points to 4,750.

On the upside

Shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) continued climbing after Bloomberg reported yesterday that bank would spend more than $400 million on cybersecurity in 2015.

Curis (Nasdaq: CRIS) announced yesterday that it entered an exclusive collaboration agreement with Aurigene Discovery Technologies.

Dealreporter reported that Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) was in discussions with TPG Capital for a possible deal.

On the downside

Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) reported lower third quarter earnings as revenue fell short of expectations and the company forecast fourth quarter revenue below estimates prompting a downgrade.

Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Magnum Hunter Resources (NYSE: MHR) from a Buy rating to a Hold rating.

Shares of Verastem (Nasdaq: VSTM) extended its losses.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 leaped 31 points to 2063. Bitcoin added $4 to $230.