Published: November 03, 2009 08:25 am      

Stocks waver, Dow gives up big gain

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks ended higher but well off their best levels of the day as volatility continued to tug at the market.

Stocks jumped early Monday after strong reports on manufacturing and housing but were fluctuating by the afternoon. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 77 points after being up as much as 146 points.

The market has been volatile in recent days as investors try to determine whether the bets they've been placing on a rebound in the economy over the past several months are still sound.

The worry is that the pace of recovery the market has been counting on may be hard to maintain. The government reported 3.5 percent growth in third-quarter GDP last week but much of that growth came from government spending. Likewise many companies are reporting stronger than expected earnings, but many of those gains came from cost-cutting instead of higher sales.

The seesaw trade on Monday came after the Institute for Supply Management reported that manufacturing activity grew in October at the fastest pace since April 2006.