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BOB MOON: So here’s how investors got their confidence back on this Wednesday, November 29th:

Economic growth in the third quarter of the year was a healthy 2.2 percent. That was even better than the markets had expected.

Then this afternoon, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book showed moderate economic growth.

So never mind the housing downturn and sluggish auto sales, economist Diane Swonk says today’s numbers are resassuring:

DIANE SWONK: The good news is the rest of the economy is coming to fill in for those holes and gaps, and although the net effect is a slowing economy, it is by no means a collapse. That gives financial markets some reassurance that the Fed actually knows what it’s doing and is on target with its game of pause at the moment on monetary policy.

Diane Swonk is chief economist at Mesirow Financial.