After being down several days in a row, the stock market got a lift Friday from European rumors that the ECB is considering setting yield-band targets in a new bond-buying program to help contain borrowing costs for Greece, Spain, and Italy, and the release of a letter Fed Chairman Bernanke had sent out a few days earlier.

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"It's very clear to me we're in the midst of a market controlled by fear and rumors, and short sellers are driving our stock down, " Mack said in a memorandum to employees Wednesday.

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