Stocks rebound at opening

AP Business WriterNEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks surged in early trading Monday, rebounding from one of Wall Street's worst weeks ever. But the market remained extremely nervous, and no one was betting that the early gains would hold.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 275 points at the 8,511 level in the first 20 minutes of trading after falling 1,369.70 last week, its biggest-ever weekly point decline.

The Nasdaq composite index was up 48.29 at 1,471, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 28 at 994.

With much uncertainty still in the market after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it was likely that technical factors were influencing the market in the early going. Some analysts have described the market as oversold, having fallen precipitously in a very emotional climate.

Wall Street also drew some support from overseas trading. London's FT-SE 100 index was up 2.4 percent, while Frankfurt's DAX index rose 4.3 percent. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.

Analysts are predicting trading will be choppy at best for the foreseeable future.

"We're just in for some rough economic times over the short term," said John Broussard, an assistant professor of finance at Rutgers University's School of Business. "This is a time when the basic economic fundamentals did not look good to start with, and these attacks did not help.

"Investors are just nervous."

Before the attacks, strong selling might have signaled that a market turnaround was imminent: Investors, finally convinced that the market had done all the selling it was going to do, might have swooped into buy stocks at the lowest prices seen in three years.

But that has yet to happen. With reserve troops mobilizing, military equipment headed to the Persian Gulf and President Bush talking about a war on terrorism, the economic and business climate has changed.

Although companies were reducing staff before, many of the newest layoffs are being blamed on the attacks. In the past two weeks, airlines and other business have announced more than 100,000 job cuts and reduced profit forecasts, citing business losses caused by the attacks and the uncertainty of what is to come.