A back-and-forth day of dramatic swings on Wall Street ended sharply higher, making Thursday just the second winning session in what has been an extremely turbulent month of trading. 

Today's Market

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 401.35 points, or 4.68%, to 8979.26, the broader S&P 500 added 38.59 points, or 4.25%, to 946.43 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 89.38 points, or 5.49%, to 1717.71. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 rose 32.07 points, or 4.68%, to 717.19.

The Dow swung in an enormous 815-point range, ultimately ending the day at the session high and above the pivotal 9000 level. 

“We’re really suffering from market schizophrenia right now. It’s just beating people up,” NYSE trader Jason Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business.

While the markets ended way up on Thursday, the late-day rally wasn't based on any ground-shaking developments, traders said. In fact, it came in the face of a series of gloomy economic reports and a mixed batch of earnings reports from companies like Citigroup (C) and United Technologies (UTX). 

“There's very little rhyme or reason for these moves. Emotion and sentiment are driving the markets in both directions," said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities. 

Thursday's huge gains paled in comparison to Monday's record-breaking 936-point surge on the Dow. Then again, just a day ago the blue-chip index suffered its second-largest point drop ever and worst percentage decline in more more than two decades.

All but three of the Dow's 30 components ended the day in the green with McDonald's (MCD) and ExxonMobil (XOM) leading the way up. Financial giants Citigroup (C) and American Express (AXP) led the percentage losers on the index, but closed well off their lows. 

Overshadowed by the swings in the equities market, crude oil prices sank below $70 a barrel, closing at their lowest level since August 2007. 

Markets Shrug Off Weak Data

Wall Street has shifted its attention over the past few days away from financial rescue plans and back to the fundamentals of earnings and economic reports. 

The markets reacted in dramatic fashion to each of the day's four economic reports. After initially soaring on a tame inflation report, the markets soldoff on bearish reports on manufacturing and industrial production. 

Despite Wall Street's wild swings on the reports, the data consistently revealed more economic weakness.

“We’re in a recession, we’ve been in a recession and we’ll likely remain in a recession until at least the middle of next year,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services.

Crude Sinks Below $70

Meanwhile, crude oil prices slumped to their lowest levels of the year Thursday after the government issued a bearish inventory report. Crude closed down $4.69 to $69.85 a barrel. Gold futures fell $34.50 to end at $804.50 an ounce -- the lowest level in a month. 

The Energy Department said crude stockpiles jumped 5.6 million barrels last week while gasoline inventories increased by 6.9 million barrels. Energy analysts had expected much more modest rises in supplies. 

Since soaring to $147 a barrel just three months ago, crude has plummeted more than 50% on recession fears and the stronger U.S. dollar. In light of the diving oil prices, OPEC moved up a planned emergency meeting from November 18 to October 24, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The lower oil prices sent airline stocks soaring more than 20% as a group. American Airlines (AMR) and U.S. Airways (LCC) rose even further.

Corporate Movers

Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer hinted at another attempt to acquire Yahoo! (YHOO), saying on Thursday he thinks a deal “would make sense economically for their shareholders and ours,” according to MarketWatch. A Microsoft spokesperson downplayed the comments.

Citigroup (C) missed Wall Street’s expectations by a penny by reporting an adjusted-loss of 71 cents per share in the third quarter. Citi has posted a total of $20.2 billion in losses over the past year. The latest report reveals that Citi has lost its title as the largest U.S. bank by assets to rival JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Merrill Lynch (MER) reported a net loss of $5.58 a share in the third quarter, missing mean estimates for a loss of $5.18. The brokerage house, which agreed to be purchased by Bank of America (BAC) last month, wrote down another $9.5 billion during what was the company's fifth-straight quarterly loss.

Ebay (EBAY) slumped to 52-week lows after the online auction site slashed its full-year outlook below Wall Street's expectations and disclosed its first gross sales decline ever. However, eBay's third-quarter earnings of 38 cents per share exceeded analyst expectations. 

United Technologies (UTX) posted a 6% jump in third-quarter profit and boosted its 2008 earnings forecast. The manufacturer earned $1.33 per share on a 7% rise in revenue to $14.81 billion. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.31 per share on sales of $15.1 billion.

UBS (UBS) received a $5.3 billion investment from the Swiss government in return for a 9.3% stake. The government will also take control of $60 billion of toxic assets from UBS.  

Credit Suisse (CS) declined to participate in the Swiss government's capital injection offer. Instead, it raised 10 billion francs from a group of private investors that include Qatar. 

Continental Airlines (CAL) beat the Street with an adjusted-loss of $1.32 per share and a 9% jump in revenue to $4.2 billion. The airline blamed its losses on high fuel costs.

Southwest Airlines (LUV) posted its first losing quarter in 17 years due to fuel hedges. On an adjusted-basis, the airline turned a profit of 9 cents per share, exceeding mean estimates for a profit of 2 cents per share. 

Data Dump

The Federal Reserve reported a much worse-than-expected 2.8% drop in industrial production -- the largest one-month drop since 1974. Also, the Philly Fed's manufacturing index plummeted to a -37.5 reading in October from 3.8 the month before. Economists had forecasted a much more modest decline to a -8.7 reading.

Those reports overshadowed a better-than-expected decline of 16,000 initial jobless claims last week. The Labor Department also said the four-week average of initial claims rose to the highest level since the 2001 recession and continuing claims jumped to 4-1/2 year highs.

Also, the government gave new evidence of cooling inflation. The Labor Department's consumer price index was unchanged in September thanks to the diving price of crude oil. Excluding food and energy costs, "core" CPI rose by 0.1% last month. Both figures were better than economists had forecasted.

Global Markets

European markets suffered another round of steep losses on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 Index, the gauge that tracks the 50 largest companies in Europe, closed down 154.26 points, or 5.98%, to 2423.80. In London, the FTSE 100 lost 218.20 points, or 5.35%, to 3861.39.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei plummeted 1089.00 points, nearly 11.5%, to 8458.45. The losses marked the largest percentage point drop for Tokyo since the 1987 stock market crash. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 767.78 points, or 4.80%, to 15230.52.