Finances And Money

A nervous Wall Street tried to make a comeback Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrials erasing most of a 209-point drop after an upbeat assessment of manufacturing activity eased some fears of the economy coming to a halt. The major indexes were modestly lower by early afternoon, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index having for a short moment made it into positive territory.

Investors were relieved that manufacturing is still expanding and decided to buy some of the stocks that were pummeled in Tuesday’s drop that sliced 416 points off the Dow. Fears about the U.S. economy contributed to that plunge, and a halfhearted rebound on Wednesday followed calming words from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of January manufacturing activity came in at 52.3, stronger than the 50.0 reading analysts expected and up from 49.3 in December. The index is an important measure of a part of the economy that has given investors headaches in recent months. Manufacturing has suffered from the listless housing market and hard-up auto industry, and at times has given off signals that a recession might be in the offing. A reading at 50 and above indicates expansion, while anything below 50 signals contraction.

The ISM data helped the market pull up from earlier lows, but anxiety still plagued the Street, with the indexes bouncing around choppily as many investors bailed out of equities and fled to safe havens like Treasurys, fearing that stocks could see a bigger correction. “The aftermath of Tuesday’s major selloff will linger for the next couple of days. I don’t think we’re totally out of the woods yet,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at New York-based brokerage house Avalon Partners Inc.

In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 31.88, or 0.26 percent, at 12,236.75, after dropping as low as 12,056.54 in the first hour of trading. Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was down 2.21, or 0.16 percent, at 1,404.61, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index was down 9.15, or 0.38 percent, at 2,407.00.

Stocks began their plunge on Tuesday amid growing worries that the U.S. and Chinese economies are slowing, then recovered slightly on Wednesday as Bernanke predicted the U.S. economy would continue to grow moderately. The market appears to be in a pattern set during past big downturns, dropping sharply one day, regaining some ground the next and then resuming its slide or waffling as investors were unable to recoup their lost confidence in stocks.

“The early morning hours raised the concern that we haven’t hit our bottom yet,” said Jack Caffrey, equities strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. “It’s probably going to be a grinding, sideways movement over the next few days as people realize there are risks out there.” Bond prices rose as stocks fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note falling to 4.55 percent from 4.57 percent late Wednesday.

Gold prices fell, while the dollar was higher against most major currencies, except for the Japanese yen. The dollar has been losing ground to the yen, as traders unwind so-called yen carry trades, borrowing the low-yielding yen to invest in the dollar, a technique that many market watchers say helped accelerate the U.S. market’s recent decline. The dollar traded at 117.58 yen by early afternoon on Thursday, down from Wednesday’s levels but higher from an earlier low of 116.94.

U.S. investors began the day rattled by another series of declines in Asian and European markets. “It’s kind of the tail wagging the dog today. There’s no stability in Asian markets, and no stability in European markets. We’re trading the market as the rest of the globe is,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock fell 0.86 percent, and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.9 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.90 percent, Germany’s DAX index tumbled 1.12 percent, and France’s CAC-40 dropped 1.12 percent.

But the U.S. market began recovering by midmorning, as investors examined the U.S. economic reports released Thursday. “As far as data goes, there’s more good news than bad news,” Hogan said. The Commerce Department said personal incomes rose in January at the fastest pace in a year, fueled in part by executive bonuses and pay hikes for federal workers. Personal incomes rose by 1 percent in January, the largest advance since January 2006, while consumer spending was up by 0.5 percent. A confident consumer willing to spend is a good sign for Wall Street that the economy won’t slow down too suddenly.

The report also showed inflation excluding sometimes volatile energy and food prices rose 0.3 percent in January, the largest one-month gain since August. But the gauge that leaves in energy and food rose by only 0.2 percent, has moderated to 2 percent year-over-year, at the top of the Fed’s 1 percent to 2 percent target. “It’s slipped back into their comfort zone. It takes the Fed tightening question right off the table,” Hogan said.

Not all the economic snapshots Thursday were upbeat: Construction activity fell by 0.8 percent in January, double the decline that analysts had been expecting, and the Labor Department reported that the number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose by 7,000 last week to 338,000. Economists had been expecting a drop in claims.

But taken together, the data over the past week still paints a picture of moderating economic growth and cooling inflation, technically, an ideal long-term situation for stocks. “The fear of recession is overblown. I don’t think we’re headed for recession in 2007,” Cardillo said. Every piece of data released will be gnawed on and digested by jumpy investors until the stock market stabilizes, meaning a single snippet of bad news could trigger another huge selloff.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a heavy 1.37 billion shares. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was down 2.90, or 0.37 percent, at 790.40.