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Bear Market Wall Street and investors. What does it mean? And how does it affect both Wall Street and Main Street? Adam Shell explains.

It's been an up-and-down October for traders at the New York Stock Exchange.(Photo: JUSTIN LANE, EPA-EFE)

Just when it looks like the stock market would never stop going down, it would be up and running.

The bounce Thursday was a big relief to jittery investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 401 points, erasing some of the sting from the previous three-day rout that knocked it down 860 points. The rebound rally puts the Dow back in positive territory for the year.

Wall Street pros cited a number of factors to explain the move higher.

* Stocks got "oversold:" The big washout suffered in Wednesday's 608-point Dow drop caused stocks to get too beat up and investor feeling to get too gloomy. But that's a day when you're going to have a plunge ending on Oct. 11. "That shows a decline in selling pressure," says Mark Arbeter, president of Arbeter Investments.

* Good earnings news: Twitter: http://www.microsoft.com/index.php?p=blogs/index.php?p=blogs/index.php?p=blogs/blogs/articles/index.php?p=blogs/viewstory/301301 Twitter to electric-car maker Tesla, reaffirmed the strength of the American economy and leading companies, says Bill Hornbarger, chief investment strategist at Moneta Group . More strong results in coming days will be needed for the market rebound to hold.

* Panic selling dries up: Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at the Commonwealth Financial Network, says, "The market's recent slide looked more like panic selling than investors. But the strong earnings reports allowed investors to recognize "that things are not as bad" as the recent swoon suggest.

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But what matters now, is what comes next?

Hornbarger says it's a "little too early to signal the all clear."

Investors, he says, should be able to pay a lot of money to buy money in the United States.

Arbeter, however, says the worst of the recent bout is "most likely over" – at least for now. It's watching to see if it's high-rising in the market today. If it can, it would suggest the market trend remains up.

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