Wall Street, Dow Jones Industrial Average | featured news

Stocks got a boost on Wall Street from positive economic news on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 135 points to 13,572 in the first hour of trading. The market was already higher in the opening minutes of trading, then jumped at 10 a.m. after the Institute for Supply Management reported that U.S. manufacturing grew in September for the first time in four months.

Stocks are surging on Wall Street, breaking a four-day losing streak, after the government reported a sharp pickup in hiring by U.S. employers in July. The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 244 points to 13,123 shortly before noon. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 28 points to 1,393, and the Nasdaq composite added 62 points to 2,972.

Stocks are pulling back sharply on Wall Street as investors get their first chance to react to a slowdown in hiring in the United States in March. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 152 points to 12,908 shortly before noon Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was off 18 at 1,380, and the Nasdaq composite lost 36 points to 3,044.

Wall Street celebrated Columbus Day with a 330-point buying binge on the Dow as traders around the world breathed a sigh of relief that European leaders pledged to bolster their banks and the markets look ahead to the start of earnings season.

Wall Street stocks plummeted Monday morning on the first-ever downgrade of the United States' credit rating, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging as much as 380 points in the first hour of trading.

Investors fled Wall Street in the worst stock-market selloff since the middle of the financial crisis in early 2009 in what has turned into a full-fledged correction. The Dow and the S&P tumbled more than 4 percent on Thursday and the Nasdaq lost 5 percent on fear the United States is staring at another recession and that Europe's sovereign debt crisis is swallowing two of its largest economies.