Well that's not precisely true with the panorama modes. While all cameras may not do it the same, Sony's panorama option in their cameras is called 'sweep panorama', can be adjusted to two extremely long sizes, and actually fires consecutive frames while you 'sweep' the camera from left to right, at up to 10 frames per second. It then aligns and assembles the multiple frames into a panoramic file, slicing a bit off the top and bottom to clean up misaligned edges. The end result are files that can be as big as 10,480x4096 pixels...definitely not just a simple low-res crop of a single shot.
As for high ISO and action, Seashore's right - no P&S can do very well - the best of them is still quite poor compared to any typical interchangeable lens camera. And yes, any camera at a low ISO, on a tripod, can take lovely night shots. However, there is one other nifty ability that can help a bit - Sony's P&S cameras also have a special 6-frame stacking mode that can allow you to take handheld high-ISO photos in low light, and achieve extremely low noise results with excellent detail far exceeding what you could achieve with anything shy of a DSLR. It works extremely well - but the caveat is that it only works with subjects that aren't moving. Scenics at night of buildings, trees, cityscapes, etc are fine and work great - even people and pets if they're sitting still...but as soon as you introduce movement, this mode doesn't work too well anymore. The camera sets to a high ISO, up to 3200, and fires 6 frames in less than a second - it then automatically aligns and stacks those 6 frames together, and in the process, the random noise which occurs in each frame is eliminated as the camera can compare what stayed the same between all 6 frames and what changed - noise is random and will occur differently in each frame, but your still subject is the same.
If action or movement in low light is in the cards, it doesn't matter what P&S you get - none will do well. Otherwise, it would seem several of the Sony offerings would meet your criteria with excellent panorama modes, built-in HDR capability, and the automatic stacking high ISO modes. Check out the new HX9, HX100V, WX10, or TX10, or look around for the last-year's models on close out, HX7, TX7, TX5, or WX5 and WX7.
