Stocks continued to rise Wednesday, with investors beginning the second quarter positively, following better-than-expected reports on U.S. housing and manufacturing. Stocks fell sharply at the opening on a worse-than-expected U.S. employment report and rumors that U.S. automakers will have to go into bankruptcy to restructure, but the major indexes turned higher by late morning. Investors ignored dismal March sales for automakers, which fell 35 percent from a year ago but improved slightly from February, suggesting the market may have hit bottom. Ford Motor said sales fell 41 percent from last year, though sales were higher than in January and February. Ford, considered to be in the best financial condition of the three U.S. automakers, had been expected to record a decline of 50 percent. General Motors (GM) said sales fell 45 percent from last year, and Chrysler said sales fell 39 percent. Toyota Motor said its sales fell 39 percent, and Honda Motor said its sales fell 36 percent. In economic news, U.S. private-sector employers cut 742,000 jobs in March after cutting 706,000 the previous month. However, U.S. pending home sales rose 2.1 percent in February, surprising economists who expected a flat reading. Pending home sales fell 7.7 percent in January. The U.S. manufacturing sector shrank for a 14th consecutive month in March, but it contracted at a slower pace than economists had expected. U.S. construction spending also continued to decline in February, but at a far slower pace than expected. Light sweet crude oil for May delivery fell $1.27 to $48.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the U.S. government reported that supplies of crude continue to grow. The U.S. dollar gained versus the euro and fell versus the yen. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 152.68, or 2 percent, to 7.761.60. Shares of diversified manufacturer 3M rose 2 percent after the company said it was cutting 1,200 jobs worldwide—or 1.5 percent of its workforce—during the first quarter. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13.21, or 1.7 percent, to 811.08. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 23.01, or 1.5 percent, to 1,551.60. The New York Stock Exchange composite index rose 106.78 to 5,085.76. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 26.24 to 1,385.57. And the Russell 2000 index rose 6.41 to 429.16.
