JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to keep the co-heads of fixed income at Bear Stearns Cos., the first senior posts given to executives from the failed New York securities firm since its rescue three weeks ago.

It was another good day in the market. The Dow rose 187.32, or 1.52%, to 12,548.64, after rising more than 260 points on Thursday, the last day of trading before the Easter weekend.

Broader stock indicators also advanced. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 20.37, or 1.53%, to 1,349.88, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 68.64, or 3.04%, to 2,326.75.

A poll on the reason why Bear Stearns is trading way above the offer price of $2.00 per share (or $2.34 offer based on the closing price of JP Morgan on 3/18/08). Please vote, and if you have any other theories make a comment.

Senior Executives of Bear Stearns with stakes of over $100 million even at the reduced pre-sale market price of Bear shares, saw their life savings go up in smoke. And so did outside investors such as Bahamas based Joseph Lewis, who bought into Bear Stearns shares worth $1 billion last year.