Wall St. gains as global central banks promise to print emergency cash

NEW YORK, Dec 12, 2007 (AFP) - Wall Street rode a roller coaster session Wednesday as stocks rallied, then fell before swinging higher after the Federal Reserve and other central banks unveiled a coordinated plan to ease a global credit crunch. In a move analysts described as the most concerted effort since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the Fed and four other central banks announced they would make tens of billions of dollars available to cash-starved international banks.

The almost two-year long US housing slump and a related credit squeeze have dried up cash flows supporting the global banking network.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 41.13 points (0.31 percent) at 13,473.90. The blue-chip index had soared over 200 points and then declined before recovering ground in late afternoon trading.

The tech-rich Nasdaq composite finished up 18.79 points (0.71 percent) at 2,671.14 while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 8.94 points (0.61 percent) to close at 1,486.59.

"Finally, the central banks to the rescue," Sherry Cooper, a chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a briefing note to investors calling the effort "the biggest act of global economic cooperation since September 1