Stocks enjoy almost 900 point rebound

NEW YORK — It's been another astounding day on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones industrials soaring nearly 900 points as investors scooped up stocks that were pounded lower in recent sessions. Analysts said some investors were buying in anticipation that the Federal Reserve will cut its fed funds rate by half a point to 1 percent on Wednesday. Others said the market had just fallen too far, with the Dow having dropped more than 500 points, the previous two trading days.

Still, the day was remarkable because investors brushed off a big drop in consumer confidence reported by the Conference Board.

The Dow is up about 889 points at the 9,065 level. That was its second-largest point gain, coming after the 936 points the Dow jumped on Oct. 13.

The market did fluctuate after the Conference Board said its index of consumer confidence has fallen to 38 in October, well below the 51 analysts expected. Wall Street is worried that consumers, whose spending drives more than two-thirds of economic growth, will keep pulling back, particularly as the holiday shopping season approaches — but with a litany of bad economic news this month, many investors expected the index to sag.

"The market already reflects a very, very poor outlook. That said, these numbers are coming in way lower than expected," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. "Consumer confidence is a pretty good predictor of retail sales."

But investors were combing the market for beaten-down stocks after the Dow fell more than 500 over two sessions. They were also trying to position themselves ahead of the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates, which is expected Wednesday.

But by holding on to most of its gains, the market seemed to be coming to terms with the fact that bad economic news will continue to stream in. Indeed, other casualties from the global credit crisis piled up Tuesday: Whirlpool Corp. said it will cut about 5,000 jobs by the end of 2009, Iceland said it needs $6 billion and Germany said Pakistan must secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund within a week.

In early afternoon trading, the Dow rose 267.38, or 3.27 percent, to 8,443.15 in volatile trading that saw the Dow rise nearly 331 points in the early going. The big moves weren't a surprise, given the huge swings stocks have shown in the past six weeks since the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Only two of the 19 trading days in October haven't ended with the Dow up or down by triple digits.

Broader stock indicators also advanced. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 23.91, or 2.82 percent, to 872.83, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 33.81, or 2.25 percent, to 1,539.71.