Markets Up at Opening

Wall Street began this morning by recouping some of its big losses from yesterday's sell-off, opening up across the boards on the final day of the first quarter of 2009.

In the first 15 minutes of trading, the Dow is up about 50 points, or a little more than half of 1 percent.

The broader S&P 500 is up about the same amount and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up 1.2 percent, the biggest mover of the day so far.

The markets tanked yesterday owing to a number of factors, including the White House ouster of GM chief executive Rick Wagoner. Today, so far, they are shrugging off the bad home price news, which showed a record 19 percent drop in January prices.

The big news comes Thursday, when unemployment numbers come out. Analysts expect the national unemployment rate to jump from 8.1 percent to 8.5 percent. Anything less would be considered a victory by Wall Street.

-- Frank Ahrens
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