Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Investors have done a late-day turnaround and left stocks mixed after the Federal Reserve gave an encouraging assessment of the economy. A House vote to speed up the effective date of limits on credit card companies took bank stocks sharply lower and the rest of the market followed.

The Fed left its benchmark interest rate unchanged and said the economy is slowly rebounding. The Fed's statement accompanying its decision noted that housing activity has picked up and that consumer spending appears to be growing.

The market appeared unnerved by the House vote to move up the February effective date of legislation that limits what banks can charge for credit cards.

The Dow Jones industrials rose 30, or 0.31%, to 9,802. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1, or 0.1%, to 1,046, while the Nasdaq composite index slipped nearly 2, or 0.1%, to 2,055.

Winning stocks were ahad of losers on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.35 billion shares.