Stocks, Dow Jones Industrial Average | featured news

Stocks are plunging as investors give in to fears that Greece's debt problems will spread and halt the global economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped back above 10,000 on hope that the European Union will help Greece manage its growing debt burden.

Parsing an economic puzzle. Recently the Dow Jones Industrial Average passed the psychologically significant 10,000 mark. This is an impressive feat for an index that was trading in the 6,000 range less than nine months ago.

Strong earnings from JPMorgan, Intel and others push up the blue-chip index in midday trading. The Dow Jones industrial average finally got back above 10,000 today -- briefly -- as banking and technology sectors did their best to move it above that psychological barrier.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average pushed into positive territory for 2009, having gained 34% in three months.