You can exhale now. Major North American stock market indexes looked set for a rough start on Tuesday morning, but managed to shake off their lows for the day by noon, implying that somebody, somewhere, is buying stocks or at least beginning to distinguish winners from losers.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up – yes, up – 11 points, to 10,928, after rebounding 185 points from its low point eariler in the day. The broader S[amp]amp;P 500 was down 3 points, to 1190, also well off its low.

Some of the bigger financial institutions, seen as having a far better chance of surviving the current turmoil relatively intact, are being scooped up. Bank of America Corp., though pounded on Monday for paying too much for Merrill Lynch [amp]amp; Co. Inc., rose 6 per cent. JPMorgan Chase [amp]amp; Co. rose 4.9 per cent.

As a subindex, financials were up 1.8 per cent – the biggest gains by a group of stocks – even after accounting for American International Group Inc. tumbling 40 per cent and Morgan Stanley falling 17.2 per cent. Meanwhile, utilities fell 2.1 per cent, telecom services fell 1.8 per cent and energy stocks fell 0.5 per cent.

In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 139 points, to 12,115 – but nonetheless a 210-point improvement from its low point earlier in the day.

There, financials did not fare as well as their U.S. counterparts, falling 2.3 per cent. Energy stocks, hurt by crude oil's fall to about $92 (U.S.) a barrel, fell 0.8 per cent. And materials fell 0.8 per cent, mostly because of a selloff among gold miners.