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

Updated from 1:38 p.m. EST

Stocks in the U.S. had earlier been hit by a series of gloomy economic reports, but were lately staging an upswing as traders looked ahead to the Thanksgiving holiday and digested President-elect Barack Obama's nomination of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to his economic team.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, down some 168 points earlier, was lately up 212 points at 8692, and the S&P 500 was adding 27 points at 885. The Nasdaq was leading the move higher with a gain of 62 points at 1526.

"In the period pre-Thanksgiving and after Thanksgiving, the market generally acts pretty well," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Advisors. He said that the market rallied about 20% from its Oct. 10 low into Election Day, and he sees the recent upward movement in stocks as a second iteration of that event. ...