Bank stocks rose Tuesday, correcting Monday's sell-off.
The KBW Bank Index rose 3.62%, after falling 1.22% Monday.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc., which dropped to $42.01 on Dec. 23, its lowest point since 2002, rose 5.7% Tuesday, to $46.18.
"The commercial banking sector will be showing a rather dreadful fourth quarter, but perhaps the money thrown at the group" by the Treasury Department "will help stock prices in 2009," said Gary Townsend, the chief executive of Hill-Townsend Capital LLC.
Wells Fargo & Co. rose 3.5%. The San Francisco banking company is cutting 53 jobs at its auto loan center in Tempe, Ariz., in connection with its pending deal for Wachovia Corp., the Charlotte Business Journal reported Monday.
Bank of America Corp. fell for most of the day but rose late in the afternoon to close up 2.32%. Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers announced Tuesday that the state finalized its $4 million settlement with Countrywide Financial Corp., which Bank of America bought in July. Countrywide provides loan modifications and foreclosure relief payments for about 8,000 borrowers.
Other gainers Tuesday included JPMorgan Chase & Co., 4.1%; KeyCorp, 6.5%; Bank of New York Mellon Corp., 5.9%; SunTrust Banks Inc., 3.9%; and Zions Bancorp., 5.4%.
Decliners included BankUnited Financial Corp., 3%, and Regions Financial Corp., 0.6%.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.17% and the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 2.44%.
Stocks dipped briefly Tuesday morning after the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to a record low of 38 this month, from 44.7 in November. Economists on average had expected a reading of 45, according to Thomson Reuters.
Scott Anderson, a senior economist at Wells Fargo, wrote in a research note issued Tuesday that the economic data "confirms the U.S. economy remains firmly locked in a deep recession that will be difficult to emerge from in the months."
The broader markets sustained their gains Tuesday as investors digested the Treasury Department's announcement late Monday that it had given GMAC LLC, the financing arm of General Motors Corp., $6 billion in funds through its Capital Purchase Program.
