Markets up by Tuesday midday – can it last?

It’s been a roller coaster ride on the markets — with North American stocks opening higher Tuesday, breaking a string of big losses over the past few days.

Even though the markets are looking a lot better than they did yesterday, the the TSX gains are cooling off just a bit – but still higher than when it closed Monday down almost 500 points and the dow dropped more than 630 points.
Both New York and Toronto opened higher on hopes that some kind of relief will be on the way today from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The chair of America’s central bank is expected to release a statement on monetary policy this afternoon.
Investors hope it will shed some light on the direction of the U.S. economy and any further stimulus measures that could be taken — and hopefully, recover some of the losses caused by the debt-rating downgrade in the United States.
Sean Cowan is watching the rebound: