Investors shrugged off downbeat reports on home prices and consumer confidence to fuel a late session rally that pushed the Dow Jones industrial average up almost 900 points Tuesday, approaching its biggest one-day gain in more than two weeks.

The Dow jumped 889.35 points, or 10.9 percent, to 9,065.12, based on preliminary results. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 91.58 points, or 10.8 percent, to 940.50, and the tech-laden Nasdaq composite rose 143.57 points, or 9.5 percent, to 1,649.47.

It was the Dow's biggest advance since it jumped 936.42 points, or 11.1 percent, Oct. 13. It also was the Dow's sixth-biggest one-day percentage gain ever and its second-biggest one-day point gain.

A report showing a steep plunge in consumer confidence threw Wall Street into reverse earlier in the morning, but investors apparently decided to go bargain-hunting after a two-day stretch that saw the Dow fall 500 points.

The Conference Board, a private research group, said its gauge of consumer sentiment fell to 38 in October. That was well below analysts' expectations and down from a revised 61.4 in September. It was the lowest reading since the group began tracking consumer sentiment in 1967 and is a bad omen for consumer spending, which makes up about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. It also reinforced worries that the nation is sliding into a potentially lengthy recession.

Investors also were reacting to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of housing prices, which dropped 16.6 percent in August compared with a year earlier. Disarray in the U.S. housing market has been a major driver of the global credit crisis.

Japan's Nikkei index jumped more than 6 percent Tuesday after falling to its lowest levels since 1982 the day before. Hong Kong's major index was up 14 percent. Bourses in Europe also were up, led by Germany's DAX index, which rocketed 8 percent largely on a huge gain in shares of Volkswagen. The automaker's shares increased fourfold in the past two sessions after Porsche said it planned to increase its stake in VW to 75 percent, touching off a panic among short-sellers.

Investors are betting that the Federal Reserve, meeting this week, will cut its target interest rate from 1.5 percent to 1 percent — a level not seen since 2004. Lower rates can stimulate borrowing, and investors are hoping another Fed rate cut will bolster confidence in the global credit markets.