NEW YORK » Buyers returned to Wall Street yesterday after two days of heavy losses, mindful of the economy's growing problems but attracted by stocks' lower prices. Analysts said the advance, which also came amid relief that a bad report on unemployment wasn't worse and followed dour third-quarter reports from Ford and General Motors, was to be expected as Wall Street experiences a rocky recovery from October's devastating selling.

Yesterday's trading was a mini-version of the market's performance over the past two weeks, with investors upbeat, then realizing there was little basis in reality for their resurgent confidence, then changing their minds again.

The U.S. Labor Department said the nation's employers cut 240,000 jobs in October, hurtling the U.S. unemployment rate to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent. The market had expected employers to cut 200,000 jobs and for the unemployment rate to rise 6.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. reported a $129 million third-quarter loss and announced plans to cut more than 2,000 additional white-collar jobs. General Motors Corp. said it lost $2.5 billion in the quarter and warned it could run out of cash in 2009. The struggling automaker also said it has suspended talks to acquire Chrysler.

Although the day's news was on its face worse than expected, investors were drawn by prices beaten down the past two sessions and some relief that the reports weren't more grim.

Nov. 15 is the cutoff for shareholders to notify fund managers of their intent to cash out investments before year-end, which means a sudden influx of “;sell”; orders could force funds into dumping more investments. Analysts expect this to continue to add to the volatility in the market.

The Dow rose 248.02, or 2.85 percent, to 8,943.81.

The broader S&P 500 index added 26.11, or 2.89 percent, to 930.99, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 38.70, or 2.41 percent, to 1,647.40.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 9.95, or 2.01 percent, to 505.79.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to a light 4.80 billion shares, compared with 5.96 billion shares traded Thursday.

For the week, the Dow fell 4.1 percent, the S&P 500 index lose 3.9 percent, the Nasdaq slid 4.3 percent and the Russell fell 5.9 percent.

The Russell 2000 index finished the week down 31.73, or 5.90 percent, at 505.79.

Paper losses for the week in U.S. stocks came to $500 billion, according to the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, which reflects nearly all stocks traded in America.

In other corporate earnings news, Sprint Nextel Corp. reported a loss of $326 million in the third quarter as it continued to lose customers. The nation's third-largest wireless provided had posted a profit in the year-ago period. Sprint dropped 31 cents, or 8.4 percent, to $3.37.

Investors fled General Motors following its quarterly reports but Ford advanced. GM tumbled 44 cents, or 9.2 percent, to $4.36, while Ford rose 4 cents, or 2 percent, to $2.02.

The dollar fell against most other major currencies, while gold prices rose. Light, sweet crude rose 27 cents to settle at $61.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling sharply during the week.

The three-month Treasury bill's yield slipped to 0.28 percent from 0.30 percent late Thursday. A lower yield indicates increased demand. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.79 percent from 3.69 percent late Thursday.