Bulls Make Late Move to Send Wall Street Higher

Toyota (TM Quote), meanwhile, announced it would cut production in December and reduce managers' winter bonuses as it copes with the economic downturn. Shares edged down 0.4% to $61.70.

Several other bearish data points were dampening sentiment. In its so-called beige book of anecdotal economic information, the Federal Reserve said that economic activity has weakened substantially. The Fed also noted an easing in price pressures thanks in part to declining costs in retail goods, raw materials, and foods.

Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist at ChannelCapitalResearch.com, said that the beige book painted a bleak picture, but it wasn't as bad as investors may have feared. He said a slight improvement in housing sales in certain regions and a less disconcerting inflation outlook were modest positives. "Otherwise, it was pretty bad," he said.

November employment figures from Automatic Data Processing showed that 250,000 jobs had been lost that month, more than the 205,000 anticipated by economists. The October unemployment figure was revised to 179,000 from 157,000.

A November non-manufacturing index from the Institute for Supply Management registered at 37.3, substantially below analysts' prediction of 42 and down from 44.4 in October.

However, revised third-quarter productivity grew at a rate of 1.3%, according to the Department of Labor. The reading was above consensus estimates of 0.9% and up from 1.1% in the second quarter.

"The jobs number is going to be the next big shoe to fall on Friday," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald, referring to the Department of Labor's November nonfarm payroll numbers. He said that the ADP data are nevertheless in line with consensus estimates for a loss of 325,000 jobs for the month, and productivity and unit labor costs showed improvement.