U.S. Stocks Charge Higher in Pre-Thanksgiving Day Rally

Outside of domestic indicators, China's central bank announced it cut its benchmark interest rate by 1.08%, a move that reflects increasing concern that one of the world's fastest-growing economies has slowed considerably.

Troubles weren't confined to Asia. The European Commission on Wednesday called for a $256 billion economic stimulus plan to help the continent alleviate its own recessionary woes.

The major averages had earlier been trading with losses following the release of numerous economic reports, many of which accentuated investor pessimism about the future of U.S. companies, but optimism appeared to pick up following Obama's appearance.

As data releases painted a picture of the downturn, President-elect Barack Obama staged a press conference to name former Fed Chair Paul Volcker to head a White House advisory board geared at steering the U.S. through the current financial turmoil.

"You've had a leadership vacuum taking place, and I think he's basically appointed high-visibility people who have pretty good track records," said Adam of Deutsche Bank. He said the market had been facing some uncertainty about who would head the new economic team. "Will it be Geithner? Will it be Summers? Or will it be Volcker? Well, now you've got all three, all probably working in a coordinated fashion."

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. also announced it would create a process by which qualified, non-bank firms can bid for deposits and assets of failing banks. The plan is designed to reduce costs to the FDIC as banks fail as well as to minimize jolts to the financial system, the agency said.