Market recovers a bit

It was one of those hold-your-breath days that turned out pretty well - a 92-point gain for the Dow on a day when nothing much happened (no major economic reports and only a few big earnings). One curious development: Citi Investment Research raised the shares of L.A.-based KB Home to "buy'' (the stock was up almost 1 percent). Of course, keep in mind that KB has been in near free-fall for several months, so perhaps the bottom is near. On the other hand, another local homebuilder, Ryland, fell 1.3 percent. And Calabasas-based Countrywide Financial was down almost 2 percent - still reeling from lending woes. Most of the local issues I track were up. "We're in a period of volatility…. We're not out of the woods yet," Bill Nichols, a trader at Bear Stearns, told the WSJ. "All of the things that bothered the market last week are still around, but people are looking at the numbers and realizing things aren't so bad," particularly with regard to earnings. More from Bloomberg.