WELCOME BREAK

Aid for Greece Drives Stocks

Market may see best full-day gain in three months.

The stock market is on track for its best full-day gain in three months, helped by hopes for a financial rescue for Greece, whose debt load had been dragging U.S. markets down for weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 180 points, or 1.8 percent, at 10088.19, after trading 231 points higher at its early afternoon peak. The measure is on course for its biggest gains since Nov. 9. The uptick provided a welcome break for investors who had watched major indexes retreat from their recent highs through Monday's close, but some traders and analysts are still circumspect about the potential for a renewed bout of selling to take indexes down 10 percent from their highs—the traditional definition of a market correction. "I don't think that one strong day like this will necessarily open the way for a whole new leg higher for the market," lasting for weeks or months, said one strategist. "But it does show you how far along the curve we got in pricing in the possible failure of Greece."