DOW - Bull and Bear at the Extreme

Dow

11,143.31

+423.37

+3.95%

YF News Update:



4:30 pm : The S&P 500 had sported a gain of more than 5% only minutes before the toll of the closing bell, but some late selling pressure caused it to settle off of its session high. As a result, the stock market couldn't quite surpass what was achieved this past Tuesday, when the stock market swung 6% from its session low to its session high to score its best single-session gain since a 7% surge in March 2009.

The late flurry of selling came as some participants, fearful that ongoing volatility could send stocks sharply lower tomorrow, opted to capitalize on the bounce by liquidating their positions. After all, today's climb was really just a relief rally, rather than a surge driven by the improvement of fiscal and financial conditions among the eurozone countries and their banking institutions.

Participants did get some positive data, though. Initial jobless claims for the week ended August 6 totaled 395,000, which is down from the 402,000 claims filed in the prior week and less than the tally of 409,000 that had been widely anticipated. The latest tally marks the first time since early April that the initial claims count fell below 400,000. Still, traders remain mindful that more than one modest downtick in weekly jobless claims is needed to ramp up the economic recovery.

Nonetheless, stocks settled sharply higher, giving bargain hunters what they wanted. Financials led the action for the fourth straight session. The sector surged more than 6% in the latest round of action. The sector's surge came even though many analysts aren't yet willing to upgrade bank stocks for fear of undesirable loan exposure or, in some cases, uncertainty related to capital levels.