Stocks crawled back from earlier steep losses yesterday after the Federal Reserve and other major central banks intervened in an attempt to jump-start stalled credit markets, with the Dow ending up 58 points, or 0.4% higher, for the week."It's helping that central banks are doing their job," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co. "There is a crisis in the credit market and it's an important assurance that they'll be there."
After erasing triple-digit losses, The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 31 points lower at 13,239, with 18 of its 30 components still in the red.
The S&P 500 index ended up 0.5 points at 1,453, while the Nasdaq Composite closed 11 points lower at 2,544.
For the week, the Dow finished up 0.4%, the S&P gained 1.4% and the Nasdaq rose 1.3%.
At the New York Stock Exchange, 2.5 billion shares were exchanged, and declining issues outpaced advancers 5 to 3. At the Nasdaq, 3.2 billion shares traded, with decliners outpacing advancing stocks 3 to 2.
