US STOCKS-Wall St ekes out gains as Fed steps in

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* Fed opens dollar swap lines with 9 new countries
* Trump sees "lot of goodwill" in stimulus talks
* Ford draws down $15.4 bln in credit
* Accenture cuts outlook as services pain grows
* Indexes up: Dow 1.01%, S&P 0.89%, Nasdaq 3.06%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh
March 19 (Reuters) - Wall Street tried to bounce back on
Thursday from dramatic losses in the previous session, as
policymakers around the world pulled out all the stops to try
and stave off a deep and lasting coronavirus-driven recession.
The benchmark S&P 500 swung into positive territory after
falling as much as 3.3% earlier in the session. The U.S. Federal
Reserve opened swap lines with central banks in nine new
countries to ensure the world's dollar-dependent financial
system continued to function.
That was the latest in a host of emergency actions taken by
the U.S. central bank over the last two weeks, including cutting
borrowing costs to near zero and providing billions more for
cheap credit.
"We have had some pretty bold moves by the Fed in the last
week or two and most of them have had a very short-lived impact
on the market so hopefully this one will help," said Randy
Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives at Charles
Schwab in Austin, Texas.
European Central Bank also pledged late Wednesday to buy 750
billion euros ($820 billion) in sovereign debt through 2020.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in a now regular update for
Americans hunkered down in their homes, said there were
therapies that he believed could be rolled out quickly, and
sounded upbeat on the chances of agreeing hundreds of billions
of dollars of aid with Congress.
To be sure, Thursday's gains were small compared to the
pounding the main U.S. indexes have suffered in the past month -
the Dow erased the last of its gains under President Donald
Trump's presidency on Wednesday, while the S&P 500 index lost
roughly $8.7 trillion in market value in the past month.
"Active investors are using this as an opportunity to maybe
pick up what might be perceived as bargains because nobody's
really sure how to value stocks right now," said Robert Pavlik,
chief investment strategist and senior portfolio manager at
SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.
Ford Motor Co F.N was the latest major U.S. corporation to
bolster its cash reserves to ride out the virus impact, drawing
down more than $15 billion from existing credit
lines. Accenture Plc ACN.N cut its full-year revenue and earnings
outlook, citing an impact from the coronavirus outbreak.
However, its shares rose 6.7%. Hotel operator Marriott International Inc MAR.O pulled its
2020 financial outlook, but its shares rose also 3%. The S&P
airlines index .SPCOMAIR , down roughly 60% this year, slipped
another 1.1%. Official data showed the number of Americans filing for
unemployment benefits surged to 2-1/2-year high last week as
companies in the services sector laid off workers because of the
pandemic. New York Stock Exchange-owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc
ICE.N said the market would temporarily close its trading
floors and move fully to electronic trading starting next week.
At 1:10 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 200.93 points, or 1.01%, at 20,099.85 and the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 21.40 points, or 0.89%, at 2,419.50. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 214.20 points, or 3.06%, at 7,204.04.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.96-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.74-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded three new 52-week highs and 89 new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 11 new highs and 503 new lows.