Dramatic Turnaround: 600-Point Swing for Dow

From FoxNews.com, Uptick, Wednesday, Jan. 23 2008 (Abbreviated)

Wall Street turned a 300-point plunge on the Dow this morning into a 300-point jump this afternoon as traders evidently found stocks at a discount after a series of sell-offs in recent days.

Today’s MarketThe Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 298.98 points, or 2.50% to 12270.17, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 28.11 points, or 2.14% to 1338.61 and the Nasdaq Composite Index picked up 24.14, or 1.05%, to 2316.41. The consumer-friendly Fox 50 rose 13.09, or 1.38%, to 959.72.Similar to yesterday's action, the market found its strength today from some of the weakest stocks over the past few months.

The comeback was a function of a market that has taken huge hits so far this year, with the Dow more than 8% in the red and the Nasdaq even lower year-to-date.

"Guys got tired of selling. Without question things have been oversold. It was only a matter of time until there was a significant bounce in the markets," said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.

Once again the trading volume was extremely high, with more than 2.8 billions shares exchanging hands today. The typical volume on the NYSE is 1.3 billion.

Wall Street opened this morning with a big 260-point plunge on the Dow then pared most of its losses. The market then sold-off for a second time, placing the Dow 320 points in the red and the Nasdaq Composite more than 3% lower.

The market may have been aided by news that New York regulators are meeting with banks about stabilizing struggling bond insurers, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Many have said that yesterday’s trading session could have been one of the worst in recent history had Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke not stepped in to ease global and U.S. fears.

“If it wasn’t for Bernanke giving an HGH shot to the market this is what we should have done yesterday. We should have corrected yesterday,” said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak.