Dow rebounds after meltdown

Stocks rose Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke helped ease investor concerns following a brutal day on Wall Street.
The 30-share Dow industrials (up 63.37 to 12,279.61, Charts) added about 0.7 percent but was off its session high. The broader S&P 500 (up 9.56 to 1,408.60, Charts) jumped 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq (up 13.50 to 2,421.36, Charts) added 0.7 percent with about 2-1/2 hours left in the session.
A man passes the famed bronze bull in New York's financial district, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007. The Dow fell 416.02 points, or 3.29 percent, to 12,216.24 on Tuesday.

The gains come on the heels of a massive selloff. The Dow tumbled 416 points Tuesday, or 3.3 percent, its largest single-day point loss since the day after the stock market reopened after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Trading was volatile Wednesday. Stocks edged higher after the market open and then reversed course, only to turn higher when Bernanke commented on the market in his appearance on Capitol Hill.
The markets seem to be "working well" and are functioning normally, Bernanke told a House panel. The selloff also hasn't altered the Fed's view on U.S. economic growth, he added.
The Dow climbed more than 100 points on Bernanke's comments, but pared some of those gains early in the afternoon.
Survive the market drop
Stocks tumbled around the world Tuesday as investors eyed a big drop in Chinese shares and signs of economic weakness.
A computer glitch also impacted the reporting of the Dow Jones industrial average, making the big decline in the United States appear even more dramatic.
The sharp drop has reminded investors that the stock market is a risky place, said Edgar Peters, chief investment officer at PanAgora Asset Management. "There is a rising awareness of risk, and there is probably going to be a certain amount of volatility in the marketplace now that wasn't there before," he said.
Global stock markets struggled to bounce back. Markets in Japan, Hong Kong and Europe remained under pressure, although the Shanghai and Shenzhen indexes rebounded almost 4 percent in China.
Investors had plenty of economic news to sift through Wednesday. A report showed new home sales tumbled 16 percent in January, the latest sign of weakness in the battered real estate market. Economists had forecast a narrower drop.
The Commerce Department said gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, rose 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter, versus an earlier estimate of 3.5 percent growth. The reading was just a shade below average forecasts.
Buy, sell or hold?
In the Dow, 22 components rose and 9 fell. All 30 stocks on the blue-chip index declined on Tuesday.
One of the biggest gainers Wednesday was drugmaker Merck (Charts), whose stock rose 3 percent after it raised its full-year earnings forecast.
Another winner was American Express (up $1.20 to $56.79, Charts), which jumped 2.4 percent after Friedman, Billings, Ramsey raised its rating on the company to "outperform" from "market perform."
Elsewhere, Sprint Nextel (up $1.27 to $19.72, Charts) climbed 5 percent after the company reported earnings in line with estimates and amid ongoing takeover speculation.
Home builder shares sank amid concerns about the housing slump. Hovnanian Enterprises (down $0.79 to $31.18, Charts), KB Home (down $0.68 to $49.41, Charts) and Toll Brothers (down $0.57 to $30.01, Charts) all declined.
Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners topped losers by a margin of 2 to 1 on volume of 1.3 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners by a margin of 4 to 3 as 1.7 billion shares changed hands.
U.S. light crude oil for April delivery fell 4 cents to $61.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Treasury prices, which soared Tuesday as equities plunged, retreated. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose to 4.56 percent, up from 4.51 percent late Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The dollar rebounded against the euro and the yen.