YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Tuesday marked a choppy day of trade as investors digested $800 billion in government efforts to shore up consumer lending and several economic reports. The S&P 500 settled with a 0.7% gain after trading up as much as 2.0% and down as much as 2.0%.

In an effort to reduce the cost and increase the availability of credit for purchasing a house, the Federal Reserve created a program that will purchase up to $600 billion in direct obligations and mortgage-backed securities of housing-related government-sponsored enterprises.

Separately, the Fed created a new facility aimed at reducing the cost and increasing the availability of auto loans, student loans, credit cards, and small business loans. The Federal Reserve will lend up to $200 billion in its Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility to help facilitate the issuance of asset-backed securities.

Stocks related to asset-backed securities and housing benefited from the news. Homebuilders spiked 20% on hopes that lower mortgage rates will spur increased demand. SLM Corp (SLM 9.62, +1.72), which provides education finance, surged 22%.

In economic news, third quarter real GDP was revised to a 0.5% annual rate of decline from a 0.3% rate, which met expectations. Third quarter personal consumption expenditures was revised to -3.7% from -3.1%.

Consumer confidence rose by are large-than-expected amount in November, but remains at an extremely depressed state as the economic turmoil takes a toll on sentiment. November consumer confidence rose 6.1 to 44.9 from October when confidence fell to an all-time low of 38.8, according to the Conference Board. Economists expected confidence of 39.5

The November Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index, a regional manufacturing survey, fell to -38 from -26 in October, which was worse than the expected reading of -27. This represents contraction in manufacturing in the Richmond region.

Home prices continue to show weakness, with prices in 20 major metro areas falling 17.4% in September compared to the previous year, according to S&P/Case-Shiller.

Eight of the ten sectors posted a gain. Materials (+3.2%), financials (+2.5%) and telecom (+2.1%) saw the most buying interest

The tech sector (-1.5%) underperformed, with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 33.61, -2.09) dropping 6% despite reporting fiscal fourth quarter earnings and fiscal year 2009 guidance that was in-line with the company's preannouncement last week. Cisco (CSCO 15.38, -1.02) was a laggard after announcing that it will shut down most of its U.S. and Canadian operations during the last week in December as part of its cost saving efforts, according to reports.  As a result, the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a loss.

Small- and mid-cap stocks outperformed their large-cap counterparts, with the Russell 2000 advancing 1.5% and the S&P 400 gaining 1.9%.

In commodity trading, oil prices dropped 6.4% to $51.00 per barrel.

Long-term Treasuries rallied, with the 10-year note climbing more than two points to send its yield down to 3.08% and the 30-year bond rose three points to send its yield down to 3.61%.DJ30 +36.08 NASDAQ -7.29 NQ100 -1.0% R2K +1.5% SP400 +1.9% SP500 +5.58 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1529/2.46 bln/1195 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2153/1.88 bln/1005