Wall Street Withstands Bleak Economic Data

Dow Rises 170 Points Despite Drop In Productivity, Fed's Dismal Forecast

(AP)  Wall Street withstood another stream of bad economic readings Wednesday, closing sharply higher as investors shuttled between pessimism about the recession and hopes that the nation might start seeing relief soon. The major indexes saw big swings throughout the day, but all closed up more than 2 percent, giving the market its second straight advance.

The day's downbeat news included a drop in productivity, a pullback in the services sector and the Federal Reserve's finding of worsening economic conditions across the country. Investors were initially disheartened by each piece of news but shook off their disappointment - until the next dismal report was issued.

Analysts largely believe that much of the bad news is already priced into the market, and they again said stocks remained in a bottoming process after the huge declines of the past two months.

"The market is beginning to look forward, and a lot of the selling pressure appears to be abating," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at New York-based brokerage house Avalon Partners. "Perhaps some of the hedge funds are becoming less aggressive in selling, and investors are starting to look at the future."

The Fed's beige book report said the country's economic picture has deteriorated, with Americans hunkered down heading into the holidays. The report suggests the economy was sinking deeper into recession.

Earlier, the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said the nation's services sector contracted dramatically in November as slower spending hurt insurers, retailers and hotels. Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that productivity growth slowed in the third quarter.

The market has now closed higher in seven of the last eight sessions; the winning streak was broken only by Monday's big decline that took the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 680 points.

Still, stocks are expected to see more volatility as the week progresses, especially with November retail sales figures being released Thursday and the government's employment report due to come out Friday.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 172.60, or 2.05 percent, to 8,591.69. The blue chip index has gained more than 442 points in the past two session, wiping out more than half of Monday's slide.

Broader indexes also closed higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 21.93, or 2.58 percent, to 870.74, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 42.58, or 2.94 percent, to 1,492.38.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 11.94, or 2.70 percent, to 453.76.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.3 billion shares.

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What does Wall Street have to do with Main Street.

Wall Street is just another gambling casino like in Vegas where the mafia runs it but in Wall Street''s case the oligarchs with money down in the Cayman Islands.

We are suffering here and we will not be suckered back into lending our pension funds to be looted back on Wall Street.

Forget it...We want to go back to a ''Constitutional Protectionist'' economy based on manufacturing our own products and rebuilding our own infrastructure and utilities.