Stocks in bounceback mode
Investors recoup some of the losses after the Dow's 680-point plunge.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks bounced Tuesday morning, as investors scooped up shares hit in the previous session's big selloff, when the Dow industrials plunged 680 points.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) all gained in the early going.
"Markets got oversold yesterday, and nobody wanted to get in the way when it was happening," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co. "Lo and behold, we woke up [today] and it looks like we created some bargains."
Stocks tumbled Monday after the National Bureau of Economic Research said the U.S. has officially been in a recession since December 2007.
But the recession announcement didn't come as a surprise to anyone, said Hogan. He blamed the stock market plunge on Monday's report from the Institute of Supply Management that manufacturing activity hit a 26-year low in November.
The Dow plunged 680 points, its fourth-biggest single-session decline on a point basis ever. The decline was 7.7%, the 12th worst one-day percentage decline ever.
The S&P 500 fell 8.9% and the Nasdaq composite gave up 9%.
Companies: General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter earnings will be at the low end of expectations. Nonetheless, shares gained 3% in the early advance.
There were also concerns about Goldman Sachs' (GS, Fortune 500) quarterly results. The Wall Street firm may post a quarterly loss of as much as $2 billion, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Goldman shares lost 2%.
The $5-a-share loss is five times what analysts have been forecasting and would be the company's first loss since it went public, the newspaper reported.
Big Three: General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), Ford (F, Fortune 500) and Chrysler are due to submit plans to Congress outlining how they would restructure their companies if they receive government loans.
The ailing automobile industry is seeking a $25 billion bailout from Congress, and they might run out of cash if they don't get it. But the Big Three CEOs were denied assistance last month, after they traveled to Washington via charter flights that cost tens of thousands of dollars.
After submitting plans Tuesday, the CEOs are expected to return to the capital on Thursday and Friday to appear before Congress. The automakers said their executives will not be flying by corporate jet, according to the AP, with Ford CEO Alan Mulally expected to drive to Washington.
November auto and truck sales are also due Tuesday. In the prior month, there were 3.8 million automobiles sold, and 4.1 million trucks.
World markets: Global stock indexes tumbled after the overnight drop on Wall Street. In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei index sank 6.4% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 5.1%.
European markets bucked the trend as the FTSE index in London, the CAC in Paris and the DAX in Frankfurt were higher in the afternoon, rebounding from earlier lows.
Oil and money: U.S. crude for January delivery rose 74 cents to $50.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier Tuesday, prices fell to $47.78 a barrel, the lowest since 2005.
In currency trading, the dollar edged higher against the yen but slipped versus the euro and the British pound.