By Ellis Mnyandu
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Wednesday as investors snapped up beaten down financial shares, a day after worries about a plan to shore up the financial system sent equities tumbling.
Investors held out hope that upcoming testimony of bank executives on Capitol Hill would elicit more support for the bank sector, offsetting lingering concerns about the failure on Tuesday of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to revive market confidence.
Shares of JPMorgan
"There's a little bit of a bounce back from yesterday since the sell-off on Geithner news was so severe," Giri Cherukuri, head trader at OakBrook Investments LLC, which oversees $1.3 billion in Lisle, Illinois.
"Financials led us down yesterday. The market wants indications from the banking executives that their business is turning around, their losses on their portfolios are abating. At some point the economy is going to bottom out and they are going to do better."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 73.11 points, or 0.93 percent, to 7,961.99. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> added 9.08 points, or 1.10 percent, to 836.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> climbed 16.21 points, or 1.06 percent, to 1,540.94.
Stocks sank on Tuesday after Geithner unveiled a plan that was thin on details about how to relieve banks of money-losing assets blamed for hampering lending.
Tuesday's slide was the worst in more than two months, and put brakes on an attempted rebound from 11-year lows hit in November.
The financial sector also got a boost from Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc
The chief executives of eight banks are due to testify before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee starting at 10 a.m.
Lawmakers are expected to grill them on how the financial institutions spent money given them under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and to vent rising public anger over the economic crisis.
(Editing by Tom Hals)
