Stocks Bounce Early After a Rotten Month on Wall Street

Monday's opening rise capped the street's worst four weeks since March 2009

U.S. markets opened with gains across the board, including nearly 200 points for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The bounce followed the worst four weeks for Wall Street since March 2009, CNN reported. But things looked up in the first minutes of the trading day. CNN Money has the numbers:

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 172 points, or 1.6%, shortly after the opening bell. Alcoa, Hewlett-Packard and Caterpillar were the biggest gainers on the blue chip index. 

The S&P 500 rose 18 points, 1.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 52 points, or 2.2%.

On Friday, U.S. Stocks capped a difficult week, with the S&P 500 posting its biggest four-week loss since March 2009, amid fears that the U.S. economy is heading into another recession, and ongoing concerns about Europe's debt crisis. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell between 4% and 6% last week.

MarketWatch quoted David Kelley, chief market strategiest at J.P. Morgan funds, who said "investors this week will try to assess whether the outlook for the economy is quite as dire as the markets seem to suggest." Many will be looking to Friday, CNN reported, when Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is due to give the keynote speech at the Kansas City Fed's annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyo.