NEW YORK » Wall Street staged a big advance in the next to last session of 2008 yesterday after Washington's latest lifeline to the auto industry bolstered hopes that the government will do whatever is necessary to cut short the recession.

Investors found solace in news that General Motors Corp.'s troubled financing arm received $5 billion of financing. The U.S. Treasury Department said late Monday it would provide the money to GMAC Financial Services LLC from the $700 billion bank rescue program.

Wall Street got another disappointing reading about the mood of Americans after the Conference Board reported its Consumer Confidence index dropped to a record low. The trade group reported the index's reading fell to a 38 in December from a revised 44.7 in November, well below the expectation of 45 economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

The International Council of Shopping Centers said yesterday that weekly same-store sales, those from stores open a year or more, dropped 1.5 percent last week at the 40 retailers it polls.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 184.46, or 2.17 percent, to 8,668.39. But even with that advance, the blue chips are still down 36.04 percent for the year with one more trading day remaining.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 21.22, or 2.44 percent, to 890.64, leaving it down 40.79 percent for the year; while the Nasdaq composite index added 40.38, or 2.67 percent, to 1,550.70, leaving it down 43.06 percent for 2008.

Light, sweet crude fell 99 cents to $39.03 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices rose Monday as investors worried fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza would disrupt oil shipments.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 16.62, or 3.57 percent, to 482.77.