The last hour of trading today saw a turn for the better in the stock market, the Dow moved up 408.41, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 4.1 percent, Goldman was holding steady, and Morgan Stanley stock was even up 5 percent. That heartening speech by President Bush must really have worked! Ha, no, just kidding, no one thinks that, although the various ways in which the government is intervening, such as Andrew Cuomo's announcement that he has started a "wide-ranging investigation" into short-selling in the financial sector did seem to bolster investors' moods. Is it over? Eh, probably not. But the positive upswing means we are officially taking away the moniker of Torturous Thursday and renaming today Tumultuous Thursday, and we will have commemorative day-of-the-week underwear made just as soon as we feel comfortable taking our money out of gold futures.

Stocks Soar, Banks Lead the Way [WSJ]
Cuomo Investigating Short Selling of Financial Firms [Bloomberg]