Panic in the Streets: Dow Surges 485 Points, September Consumer Confidence Rises

Of course, try finding anyone being slightly optimistic about today's rise on Wall Street.

This headline, for starters.

Wall Street climbs halfway out of yesterday's hole; credit woes worsen

Halfway? Hmm. Let's see. Did the Dow fall 970 points yesterday?

Whatever the reason — bailout optimism, bargain hunting or just a big dead-cat bounce — the markets rebounded about halfway today.

The Dow Jones regained 485 of the 777 points it lost yesterday (+4.6%), closing at 10,850. That was the third biggest point gain ever. For the month, however, the Dow was down 6%.

Still, it's no reason for unbridled optimism, though at the same time, the catastrophic headlines from Monday need to be put in perspective.

The bell on Wall Street just stopped clanging and the pessimism is in full force.

Meanwhile, in news sure to be buried, consumer confidence rose in September? How can this be?

US consumer confidence rose unexpectedly for the third straight month in September as expectations for the economy over the next six months rose despite weak conditions in financial markets, a closely-watched survey of consumer attitudes reported Tuesday.

The New York-based Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index rose unexpectedly to 59.8 in September from an upwardly revised 58.5 level in August.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters IFR Markets were expecting overall consumer confidence in September to fall to 55.5 from the 56.9 level originally reported for August.

So the analysts expected it to be 55.5, but instead it's 59.8. Hey, what's a measly 4.5 points among analysts?