NEW YORK - Wall Street is shaking off more signs of global economic troubles and is rising while investors await the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates.
The Fed is starting a two-day meeting is expected to lower its key fed funds rate by a half-point to 1 percent.
The move higher comes as casualties from the global crisis pile up:
*Whirlpool Corp. says it plans to cut about 5,000 jobs by the end of 2009, Iceland says it needs $6 billion and Germany says Pakistan must secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund within a week.
*The financial crisis is taking a toll on consumers. The Conference Board says its index of consumer confidence dropped to the lowest level in 41 years because of the turmoil.
*A new report indicates that home prices tumbled by the largest amount on record in August. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index dropped 16.6 percent from August of last year, the largest drop since its inception in 2000.
But stocks are nonetheless rebounding after the Dow Jones industrials fell more than 500 points over two sessions on worries about the economy.
The Dow is up 214, or 2.6 percent, at the 8,390 level. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 2.65 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index is up 3.26 percent.
Tuesday
July 1st, 2025
11:19AM
