* Jitters over Geithner's confirmation cut gains
* Financials jump after Tuesday's heavy sell-off
* Dow up 0.5 pct, S&P up 0.6 pct, Nasdaq up 0.9pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click []
(Updates to late morning)
NEW YORK, Jan 21 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks pared gains on
Wednesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 briefly turning negative
as tough questions during Treasury secretary candidate Timothy
Geithner's testimony raised some doubts about his
confirmation.
Focus turned to a Senate hearing on Geithner's nomination,
overshadowing an earlier rally that had sent the S&P 500 up
over 2 percent following a solid forecast from IBM and bargain
hunting in the banking sector.
Wall Street had cheered Obama's choice of Geithner when it
was first announced, but the nomination has since generated
some controversy. Geithner is expected to face questions about
his past failure to pay some taxes.
Dave Rovelli, managing director of U.S. equity trading at
Canaccord Adams in New York, said he believed the Senate will
ultimately confirm Geithner, but uncertainty killed the stock
rally.
The stock rally was squashed because of "the uncertainty
of whether he's going to be confirmed or not, because we need
someone right away," Rovelli said.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> rose 65.79 points,
or 0.83 percent, to 8,014.88. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
<.SPX> added 8.87 points, or 1.10 percent, to 814.09. The
Nasdaq Composite Index <> was up 18.36 points, or 1.27
percent, at 1,459.22.
Also denting sentiment was Geithner's testimony that
President Barack Obama will lay out an economic stabilization
plan in the next few weeks. Investors had been hoping to see
the new administration hit the ground running with efforts to
prevent the year-long recession from worsening.
"Geithner said Obama's economic plan will come in the
next few weeks' and I think people are hoping for an
immediate package now. But the fear is that it could take two
to three months," said Bret Barker, portfolio manager at
Metropolitan West Asset Management in Los Angeles.
Still, International Business Machines Corp <IBM.N>
contributed the most to the Dow's gain, shooting up 8.7
percent to $89.12 after the world's top technology services
company reported a quarterly profit and gave a 2009 profit
outlook that surpassed expectations. For details, see
[].
Financial shares advanced as investors went hunting for
bargains in a sector that has been hit hard by losses
resulting from the credit crunch and worries of more to come.
JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N> jumped almost 11 percent to
$20.04 and ranked among the Dow's top advancers.
(Reporting by Leah Schnurr, with additional reporting by
Jennifer Ablan and Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Jan Paschal)
