4:00PM New York, 10:00PM Frankfurt, 8:00AM Sydney – U.S. stocks staged a sharp reversal in the late afternoon as buyers hunted for bargains and talks of rescuing bond insurers emerged.

North American Markets indexes

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 298.98 or 2.50% to a close of 12,270.17, S&P 500 closed up 28.10 or 2.14% to 1,338.60, and Nasdaq Composite Index traded up 24.14 or 1.05% to a close of 2,316.41.

In Toronto TSX Composite closed up 39.23 or 0.31% to close at 12,680.11.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average, 13 closed higher, 17 closed lower, and none was unchanged.

Aloca led the decliners in the index with a loss of 4% followed by losses in Boeing of 3.4%, in Exxon Mobil of 2.9%, in Hewlett Packard of 2.8%, and in Merck of 2.78%.

JP Morgan Chase led the gainers in the index with a rise of 9% followed by increases in General Motors of 7.5%, in Citigroup of 5.6%, in Intel of 5.1%, and in Home Depot of 3.95%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500, 311 closed higher, 187 fell, and 2 were unchanged.

Forty eight stocks fell more than 3% and one hundred and fifty seven stocks rose more than 3%. Twenty eight stocks closed above 10% in the index.

Ambac led the gainers in the index with a rise of 35% followed by increases in BB&T of 12%, in MBIA of 11%, in CIT Group of 10.9%, and in KB Home of 10.8%, and in Centex Corp of 10.8%.

Motorola led the decliners in the index with a fall of 18.8% followed by losses in Ciena of 14%, in MGIC of 13.6%, in Apple of 11.5%, and in Freeport McMoran of 7.6%


South American Markets Indexes

In Latin Markets Peru led the decliners in the region with a loss of 6.22% followed by decreases in Brazil of 4.07%, in Argentina of 2.69%, in Chile of 1.84%, and in Mexico of 1.22%. Colombia gained 0.85% and Venezuela declined 0.5%.

Asian Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed higher 256.01 or 2.04% to 12,829.06, in Hong Kong Hang Seng index increased 2332.54 or 10.72% closed to 24,090.17, in Australia ASX 200 index higher 225.50 or 4.35% to close 5,412.30.

In South Korea Kospi Index increased 19.40 or 1.21% to close at 1,628.42, in Thailand SET index closed lower 0.89 or 0.12% to 740.65, and Indonesia JSE Index edged increased 181.75 or 7.92% to 2,476.28. Sensex index in India increased 864.10 or 5.16% to 17,594.07.

European Markets

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 130.80 or 2.28% to 5,609.30, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 205.78 or 4.25% to close at 4,636.76 and in Frankfurt DAX index lower 330.26 or 4.88% to close at 6,439.21. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 131.79 or 1.76% to close at 7,356.13.

Bond Yields decreased on 10-year U.S. bonds to 3.40% and 30-year bonds declined to 4.16%.