Once again, an absolutely amazing day on wall street. To say that the street is volatile right now is a huge understatement. The day could very easily be split in half, with the first half of the day today belonging to the bears and the second half to the bulls. At 12:45, exactly halfway through the day the Dow was down by more than 300 points. At 4 pm the Dow was higher by 299 points. All in all there was an intraday rebound of 600 points for the Dow. The Nasdaq was down almost 90 points midday, but then rebounded to close higher by 24 points. The S&P 500 also was down about 40 points, but rebounded to close higher 28 points, or 2.1%.
The very clear leaders in today's rally were the stocks that have been the hardest hit by economic worries. The financials, retailers, and transportation stocks all traded much higher on the day. 
The obvious face of the subprime crisis are the financial stocks, which have been crushed unmercifully. Today those stocks saw some of the biggest one day gains in their long histories. JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) gained a staggering 11.89% on tremendous volume. U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) gained 6.55% on the day. Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) and Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) charged higher by 11.77% and 7.34% as the brokers showed great strength. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) shares gained 6.62% in today's trading. Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) charged higher by 8.38% on very strong volume. Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE), the other major government mortgage company gained 13.39%.
Retailers were also boosted across the board today. Apparel retailer Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) led the sector with a gain of 11.26%. Limited Brands (NYSE:LTD) gained 6.99% on the session today. Aeropostale (NYSE:ARO) charged higher by 12.09%. Bed Bath and Beyond (Nasdaq:BBBY) gained 6.7% in today's trading. CarMax (NYSE:KMX) gained 12.04% on the day. Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) charged higher by 11.57% on more than double its normal volume.
Another area that was extremely strong today was the transportation sector. United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) gained 6.06% and FedEx (NYSE:FDX) gained 5.73% as the parcel carriers showed nice strength. Expeditors International (Nasdaq:EXPD) shares jumped 10.45% on nearly three times its normal volume. CH Robinson (Nasdaq:CHRW) gained 7.57% on the day. Airline stocks were extremely strong as investors cheer the recent drop in oil prices. AMR (NYSE:AMR) jumped 15.45% on the day. Southwest (NYSE:LUV) gained 6.51% on the day.
The question everyone is asking, was today the bottom? Certainly only time will tell, but I think that the answer is yes in the short-term. The panic selloff that occurred this morning on huge volume certainly seemed like capitulation. The intraday reversal with a strong finish was very encouraging for the short-term future of our stock market. For the longer term and whether these lows will hold, it is not the technicals that tell us the answer, but the fundamentals and the economic data. If we indeed see a prolonged recession then these lows will probably not hold, but if the Fed continues to stay on top of things and cut aggressively and the economy averts a major recession these lows may well hold for the duration.
Today at 1:30 pm, just after the market started to rebound from its lows, there was a total of one new high on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq. That tells you just how terrible the trade was for the first half of the day. The volume today was extremely heavy with the Nasdaq finishing around 3.65 billion shares traded and the NYSE around 2.85 billion shares traded.
Whether we have hit a bottom or not, don't expect this volatility to go away anytime soon. If history tells us anything it is that when a period like this comes, the volatility stays high for quite some time.
Stay tuned to GrowYourFunds and the RSS Feed for further information on the wild market.
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