Stocks rise entering afternoon trading

By msnbc.com staff

Stocks spiked entering afternoon trading as investors hoped that political turmoil in Greece would end a planned referendum over austerity measures and the European Union?s plan to handle its debt would endure.

As noon eastern approached the Dow Jones Industrial average was up 1 percent, the S&P 500 was up .9 percent and the Nasdaq was up 1.1 percent.

Thursday?s economic news was mixed, and may have contributed to an early swoon in trading before stocks returned to higher territory. First-time applications for unemployment benefits eased somewhat, factory orders rose. However, an index measuring activity in the service sector was down in October.

President Obama will join the other leaders of the G20 for a meeting in southern France today. The European Central Bank also seemed to help the market as it cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point.

?It is obvious that the E.C.B. has caught the crisis virus and is trying everything it can to prevent a full-fledged recession,? Carsten Brzeski, an economist with I.N.G. in Brussels, wrote in a report quoted in the New York Times.

The question now, he added, ?is whether the E.C.B. is also willing to do everything to prevent a further escalation of the sovereign debt crisis, becoming the unconditional lender of last resort of the euro zone.?

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Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/03/8616327-stocks-rise-entering-afternoon-trading

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