Marvel-ous

Walt Disney reached a deal to pay Viacom’s Paramount Studios a minimum of $115 mil lion for the right to dis tribute two upcoming Marvel films, “Iron Man 3” and “The Avengers.”

Bartz backers

Yahoo!’s board firmly supports beleaguered CEO Carol Bartz and remains fully com mitted to fulfilling her four-year contract, a person familiar with the situation said.

Whoops

A software update at NYSE Euronext’s Arca platform triggered what appeared to be a 9.6 percent plunge in an exchange-traded fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, a drop that would have erased $7.9 billion from one of the most popular securities in the US. Arca corrected the price to an 0.5 percent gain.

Marts up

A measure of home- builder confidence that topped expectations helped the Dow Jones in dustrial average rise 80.91 points to 11,143.69 — its highest close since May 3. The Nasdaq added 11.89 to 2,480.66, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 advanced 8.52 to 1,184.71.