Stocks Surge: Upbeat Wall Street Mood Buoyed by Housing News
Wall Street rallies as investors look for signs the economy has found footing.
May 4, 2009— -- Wall Street rallied today as investors looked for signs that the economy is finding its footing.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 214 points and the NASDAQ rose 44 points. Wall Street's surge pushed the Dow up almost 29 percent from its low in March. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, a much broader stock index, turned positive for the year, rising 3.4 percent today.
Signs that some of the hardest hit sectors may be on the rebound jolted the markets. Construction spending rose by 0.3 percent last month, according to the Commerce Department, even though experts had predicted a negative number. Pending home sales are up 3.2 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors, where analysts had anticipated no growth at all.
At the New York Stock Exchange, some traders expressed optimism, saying it's possible that this turnaround could be the real deal.
"The market is building on all these little indicators that are coming in, all these little signals showing that maybe, just maybe, the recession, the worst part, is behind us," trader Alan Valdes said.
In addition to the pickup in the housing market, economists see signs that the all-important American consumer, who drives the economy, is starting to regain some confidence.
"They're starting to open their purse strings a little bit. They're not just clamping down on everything," said Jay Bryson, global economist at Wachovia. "Consumers are perhaps feeling not as pessimistic as they were just a few months ago."
Fifty-five percent of Americans are optimistic about the economy in the year ahead, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll. Consumer confidence has reached its high for the year -- though still well below average, experts find.
