Relieved to hear that the U.S. government was lowering the national terror alert level and heartened by reports that Iraq would destroy some missiles by the weekend, investors ratcheted up their buying Thursday, wiping much of the previous session’s big sell-off. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 74.65, or 1 percent, to 7,881.63, recouping the bulk of the 102.52 loss from Wednesday. The broader market also rallied. The Nasdaq composite index rose 17.67, or 1.4 percent, to 1,321.35. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index advanced 9.69, or 1.2 percent, to 837.24. Investors added to gains the market achieved following a report of an unexpectedly strong rise in orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket items, which fed hopes that the economy could be rebounding. The advance was modest until late morning, when the Bush administration announced it was lowering the terror alert level from orange — the second highest status — by one degree to yellow, suggesting that the threat of a terrorist attack in the United States has eased somewhat. Wall Street also took heart from a report by Egypt’s news agency that Iraq would announce later in the day that it will comply with a U.N. order to begin destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles by the weekend. There was no such comment from the Iraqi government, but the Egyptian Middle East News Agency quoted unidentified sources in Baghdad as saying the measure was aimed at depriving the United States of justification for attack. Full Story
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