Stocks Show Mettle

Updated from 4:05 p.m. EDT

Investors built more gains Wednesday, focusing on lower oil prices as a cloudy economic picture resisted clarification.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44.26 points, or 0.42%, to 10,633.50, while the S&P 500 gained 2.97 points, or 0.24%, to 1236.36. The Nasdaq Composite added 5.17 points, or 0.24%, to 2172.03. The 10-year Treasury bond was down 13/32 in price to yield 4.14%, while the dollar rose against the yen and euro.

Since its Aug. 26 close before Hurricane Katrina struck, the Dow is currently up 235 points, or 2.3%; the S&P 500 is up 31 points, or 2.6%; and the Nasdaq is up 52 points, or 2.4%. The S&P 500 now sits less than 10 points below its four-year high.

"It's been a very surprising and volatile last couple of days," said Barry Hyman, equity market strategist with Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum. "Today, speculation came back into the market. We seem to be jumping to a conclusion without an assessment."

About 1.49 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, with advancers matching decliners. Trading volume on the Nasdaq was 1.52 billion shares, with advancers narrowly outpacing decliners 8 to 7.

Oil prices were weaker for a third straight session, with October crude losing $1.59 to $64.37 a barrel, its lowest closing level since Aug. 18. Gasoline futures fell 3 cents to $2.02 a gallon.

Trading was choppy throughout the day as traders tried to piece together an increasingly confusing economic puzzle. Hurricane Katrina provided the backdrop, with images of devastation framing a dour economic assessment from Treasury Secretary John Snow.

"It would seem to make sense to think that we could see loss of GDP growth rate in the quarters ahead of half a percent or so," Snow said Tuesday in Washington.

Speaking in Chicago on Wednesday, the Fed's Michael Moskow said assessing the storm's impact will require "judgment calls."