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8B Daily News – Thursday, April 12, 2012 Investors on Wednesday all but forgot the previous day's burdens and sent stocks soaring. It was a stark turnaround from the day before, when they'd pushed the market into a free-fall on worries about European debt and corpo- rate earnings in the U.S. Those fears about prob- lems festering on both sides of the Atlantic were calmed thanks to a surpris- ing profit from Alcoa and news that borrowing costs in Spain had edged down, a potential sign that investors have more faith — for now, anyway — in that country's financial health. The result was a U-turn NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks make a U-turn, rising after big decline Wall Street on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed as much as 129 points in early trading before settling at 12,805.39, up 89.46 points. The previous day, it had lost 214 points, the cap to its biggest and longest los- ing streak this year. European markets rose, too. Stocks climbed rough- ly 1 percent in major capi- tals, excluding Greece, after losing 2 to 3 percent the day before. Treasury prices fell, signaling that investors are more willing to put money in stocks. Other U.S. indexes also erased much of the previ- ous day's losses. The Stan- dard & Poor's 500 rose 10.12 points to 1,368.71 after losing 24 points the day before. The Nasdaq composite climbed 25.24 points to 3,016.46 follow- ing a 56-point loss Tues- day. Alcoa rose more than 6 percent after reporting late Tuesday that it turned a profit in the first three months of the year and handily beat the expecta- tions of Wall Street ana- lysts, who were predicting a loss. Since Alcoa is the first company in the Dow average to report earnings, its results have a greater ability to move the market compared with companies that report later. More first- quarter results will be released over the next few weeks. Market watchers were divided over how long the gains would last and whether Alcoa's profits actually mean anything for the rest of the earnings sea- son. ''I'm not predicting we're going to have blowout earnings quarter,'' said David Armstrong, managing director of Mon- ument Wealth Manage- ment in Alexandria, Va. ''But I think if people thought earnings season was going to be bad, they may be pleasantly sur- prised.'' ''One earnings report?'' countered Uri Landesman, president of the New York hedge fund Platinum Part- ners. The boost ''will last until the first bad number.'' For Europe as well, a investors seemed anxious to latch onto any piece of good news. They were cheered that the rate on Spain's 10-year bonds dropped slightly after near- ing 6 percent on Tuesday. Seven percent is generally considered the rate at Western heritage. Cattlemen and women. Bigtime rodeo. Old California. Victorian homes. Antique stores. World class hunting and fishing. Agri-Tourism. World-famous motorcycle road. Alpine hiking and camping. Volcanic legacy. Award winning olive oils. Slow foods. Wineries in the pines. Warm, welcoming people. We love it here. They will, too. which it becomes too expensive for a country to borrow money. Investors chose, largely, to ignore other signs blar- ing that problems in Europe are only hibernat- ing and not solved. Spain's borrowing costs are still dangerously high. Italy sold 12-month bonds but was forced to pay more than double the interest rate it paid last month. Even Germany, whose bonds are considered a safer invest- ment, failed to sell all the 10-year bonds it had intended to. In Greece and France, upcoming elections threat- en to unravel the uneasy peace that has been reached between the weak and strong countries in Europe. New leaders could unwind hard-fought deals that require Greece and others to cut spending in order to get bailout loans. Greece's unpredictability rose to a new level Wednesday when the country announced it would hold parliamentary elections months ahead of schedule. Landesman described the dealmaking as ''Band- Aid after Band-Aid,'' rather than a real solution addressing Europe's deep- rooted problems of over- spending. ''You can't do that forever,'' Landesman said. ''There is a day of news, I think that's poor discipline as a (long-term) investor.'' Europe's debt crisis and concerns about U.S. earn- ings haven't been the only problems for the market in recent weeks. There are also signs that job growth is slowing and that the Feder- al Reserve is disinclined to pump more money into the economy. Wednesday's gains still don't make up for the mar- ket's second-quarter losses. Wednesday was just the second gain for the Dow in the seven trading days so far this quarter. The Dow was up 8 percent at the end of the first quarter, but it's down 3 percent so far for the second. reckoning.'' news out of Europe, it's equally difficult to guess how investors will react to it — panicking one day and shrugging off similar developments on another day. There are plenty of days the market swings on news out of Europe that is merely incremental, or even when there's no news at all. ''A possible European recession? I don't really think that's new,'' said Armstrong. ''For people reacting as if this is new If it is hard to predict viewpoint, however, the market's recent swings have been relatively mild. The Dow plunged nearly 550 points in the five days ending Tuesday, a molehill compared to the mountain of last summer's frighten- ing drops. Those included an 858-point, eight-day plunge in July and August, as Congress bickered over government debt limits and the S&P prepared to down- grade the U.S. debt rating. In fact, the market's steady rise from Thanks- giving to the end of March has kept the losses of the last few days from being any worse, said Frank Fan- tozzi, CEO of Planned Financial Services in Cleveland. ''It's like a person,'' From a longer-term Fantozzi said. ''If you're feeling good overall and a couple negative things hap- pen, you just shrug it off. If you're feeling lousy and you get some good news, you still feel lousy.'' FRIDAY SPECIALS WHOLE TRI-TIPS Celebrating our 9 yr Anniversary WHOLE RACK OF SPARE RIBS $ starting at $ 1ST COME 1ST 2 Bud's BBQ 528-0799 Michael Martin Only good through April 30, 2012 OR RESERVE 22825 Antelope Blvd • Red Bluff April 14th Murphey In concert Spring-summer edition published May 26 Advertising deadline: Friday, May 4 Crystal Art & Apparel, Crossroads Feed The Loft - Red Bluff, Shasta Farm - Cottonwood, Rabobank - Corning, Richfield Feed Tickets $50 - $35 - $25 available at State Theatre Info 527-3092 • 7pm SERVED 15 20