By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks retained about half of Wednesday's
strong gains after the Federal Reserve held interest rates as is and data had
companies adding more jobs than expected in October.
While not making any further moves to ease monetary policy, Fed policy makers said in a statement that the economy has improved, although significant downside risks remain.
"While much of November's statement is identical to September's, the FOMC [ Federal Open Market Committee] is clearly inching towards easing further," noted Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC.
"Today's press conference is going to shed some light on this subject in terms of how universal is the belief that what ails the economy can be aided by further steps from the FOMC," Greenhaus added of Bernanke's news conference slated for 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
After rising nearly 220 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was lately up 124.12 points to 11,782.08, with all but four of its 30 components in the green.
The blue-chip benchmark lost 573 points -- nearly 4.7% -- in the prior two sessions.
The S&P 500 Index (SPX) rose 13.07 points to 1,231.35, with financials leading gains that included all 10 of its major industry groups.
MasterCard Inc. (MA) shares gained 6.9% after the payments processor reported quarterly results that exceeded Wall Street's expectations.
The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) added 16.70 points to 2,623.66.
For every stock that fell, four rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where 397 million shares traded as of 1:15 p.m. Eastern.
U.S. stocks started the session sharply higher after Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported U.S. companies added 110,000 workers in October, with the bulk of the increase in private payrolls coming in the service sector. ADP also revised higher its count for September.
"The labor market is in better shape than we thought two months ago, which is good news for the economy, corporate earnings and the stock market," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors.
European leaders planned emergency talks with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in France, a day before the Group of 20 summit.
Papandreou rattled global markets earlier this week by calling for a national vote on Europe's bailout package for the country.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 11-02-111321ET Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.