Wall Street shares have risen on hopes that US lawmakers will finally hammer out the details of a $700bn (Ј379bn) bail-out package for the US economy.
The benchmark Dow Jones index rose 230.43 points, or 2.135, to 11,055.60.
as the White House said "significant progress" had been made.
A day earlier President Bush urged Thai PM accepts foreign minister's resignation ...
Sticky situation averted as man tries to glue himself to British PM ... Congress to act to halt the financial crisis that is crippling the economy.
Confidence has slumped, shares fallen and companies closed in the turmoil.
The talks come as the chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants that had to be rescued by the government, are to testify in Congress.
The two firms finance or guarantee nearly half of the outstanding mortgages in the US and authorities were forced to step in as the pair lost billions of dollars in the housing slowdown.
A collapse of the two lenders would have frozen US mortgage lending for years, and would likely have led to even steeper declines in house prices.
Fannie and Freddie became two of the biggest victims of the crisis enveloping the US, which has recently led to the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, the takeover of Wall Street giant Merrill Lynch and the bail-out of insurer AIG.
Crisis plan
Mr Bush has been urging both Republicans and Democrats to back plans for a $700bn rescue package to ease the "serious financial crisis".
A bipartisan meeting, including presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, is taking place on Thursday to discuss the proposals.
However, lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties have voiced doubts about the plan and the speed at which they are being asked to approve it.
They have pointed to a lack of protection for taxpayers, the possibility of "golden parachutes" for Wall Street bosses behind the current problems, as well as calls for a dramatic cut in the size of the bail-out package.
Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics, said there was an "air of panic" in the US and "something needs to be done now".
A "comprehensive" solution was needed to tackle the problems, not piecemeal ones, he added.
Last week, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government planned to buy out the so-called "toxic debts" that were clogging up the financial system.
Without such a move, he warned the savings of ordinary Americans could be at risk.
However, Mr Davies said that simply buying the bad debts would not be enough.
"I would have preferred a package of buying troubled assets and direct injections into troubled institutions," he said.
(BBC)
<< Back