Around the World's Markets: New York

US STOCKS were sharply higher after Dell Computer announced plans to buy $16bn of products from IBM.

The Dow Jones was up 142.08 points at 9,417.96 by early afternoon. The Nasdaq Composite was up 21.96 points at 2,287.16.

Dell, the number one direct seller of personal computers, was the most actively traded stock after it announced its deal with IBM. The share prices of both Dell and IBM surged (see story above) and other IT stocks were also trading higher.