Wall Street ended higher after an extremely volatile session on Tuesday as the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged boosted the market's confidence in U.S. economy.
The Dow Jones climbed 141 points Tuesday, paring part of the huge loss of 504 points on Monday, the biggest drop since the Sept.11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Investors were closely watching the Federal Reserve's move on the interest rates and the decision of leaving them steady eased investors' fears of a deteriorating financial condition.
However, financials still faced enormous pressure. The New York Fed is reported to hold meetings on possible solution to troubled largest insurer AIG, which tumbled another 56 percent in early trading as its credit rating was downgraded by S&P and Moody's when struggling to raise capital.
Moreover, the earnings result from Goldman Sachs failed to boost the market sentiment. Goldman Sachs posted that the third-quarter profit fell a record 70 percent, the sharpest drop since it went public nine years ago. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley dropped 5 percent and 16 percent, separately.
The market did not respond with much enthusiasm after the New York Federal Reserve announced that it would inject 50 billion U.S.dollars into the banking system and stands ready to add more if needed.
Oil plummeted 10 dollars in two sessions, which weighed on energy stocks but sent airlines and automakers higher. Light, sweet crude dropped 4.56 dollars to settle at 91.15 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Dow Jones gained 141.51 to 11,059.02. Broader indexes also ended higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 20.90 to 1,213.60 and the Nasdaq rose 27.99 to 2,207.90.
(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2008)
