Wall Street won biggest gains in two weeks on Tuesday after the U.S. government committed six billion U.S. dollars to support GMAC LLC, Xinhua reported.
The U.S. Treasury will purchase a five billion stake in GMAC, the financing arm of General Motors, and lend one billion to GM. Investors felt further alleviated that the government made additional effort to keep the largest U.S. automaker out of bankruptcy. GM and Ford rose strongly.
The market continuously shrugged off dismal economic data. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence index dropped to 38 in December from a revised 44.7 in November. Wall Street had expected a slight rise in December from 44.9 in November.
The S&P/Case-shiller index showed that home price in 20 U.S. cities declined 18 percent in the 12 months to October, the fastest rate on record.
Crude oil fell 99 cents to settle at 39.03 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as investors continued to worry about the economic conditions.
The Dow Jones rose 184.46 to 8,668.39. Broader indexes also moved higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 21.22 to 890. 60; and the Nasdaq climbed 40.38 to 1,550.70.