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The stock market was extremely topsy turvy once again today as it has been all week. Stocks opened slightly higher, before the Dow fell by almost 100 by 2:15. It looked as if the stock market was headed to another weak close, but right at 2:15 things turned on a dime and the major indices jumped higher. The Dow gained 146, while the Nasdaq jumped by 34 points. The broader S&P 500 index rose by 19 points, or 1.36%.

Financials, which have led the way lower in the past few days, were one of the stronger groups today. Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) gained 4.8% on heavier than normal volume. Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) traded higher by 3.41% on the day. Exchange stocks showed some nice strength today, and did so on heavy volume. NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) charged higher by 4.55%, while the CME Group (NYSE:CME) rebounded from large intraday losses to close higher by 0.39%.

Another leader on the way down of late has been technology, and like financials, tech stocks were one of the leaders higher today. VMware (NYSE:VMW), which has been crushed in the past couple weeks, jumped 7.23% today. Corning (NYSE:GLW) rose by 3.46% on nearly double its normal daily volume. NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq:NVDA) gained 5.17% and Marvell Technology (Nasdaq:MRVL) gained 3.95% as the semiconducter area outperformed the market today. Verisign (Nasdaq:VRSN) gained 2.99% on the day.

For the third day in a row healthcare stocks were very strong. Amgen (Nasdaq:AMGN) shares rose by 2.85% today. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) gained 1.92% on heavy volume. St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) traded higher by 3.46% and Baxter International (NYSE:BAX) gained 5.33% as the medical equipment stocks gained significant ground today.

Volume was heavy today, as the Nasdaq reached 2.9 billion shares and the NYSE almost 2.1 billion shares. The volatility level has clearly picked up as investors stage the tug of war between buying selloffs and selling stocks because of the economic worries.

The number to watch tomorrow is the Initial Jobless Claims number. The market is expecting 340,000, but many believe it will come in higher than this. The higher the number comes in, the worse the news for the economy. As GrowYourFunds RSS readers know, I have said it many times that this economy simply cannot hold up with the jobs market cooling down significantly.