A Commerce Department report released Thursday that showed growth in the gross domestic product sent the stock market soaring, with the Dow Jones posting a nearly 200 point gain.

At the end of trading on Friday, however, that gain was erased by another Commerce Depart report that said consumer spending dropped in September by the largest amount in nine months, according to the the New York Times.

The Dow Jones dropped nearly 250 points, or 2.5 percent.

The U.S. economy expanded by 3.5 percent between July and September, and household purchases rose 3.4 percent, according to the Thursday Commerce Department figures.

Much of the growth was attributable to government incentives such as the “cash-for-clunkers” program which spurred consumer spending on automobiles and an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

Purchases of durable goods, including autos, jumped 22 percent, and residential construction rose 23 percent in the last quarter, reported Bloomberg News.

That trend was reversed when the cash-for-clunkers program ended in September, said the New York Times.

Unemployment figures also remain dismal, leading President Obama to say the economy has “a long way to go” before it makes a full recovery.

The jobless rate reached a 26-year high of 9.8 percent in September, up from 7.6 percent when Obama took office in January, Bloomberg reported. Many economists predict the unemployment rate will top 10 percent in 2010.

The housing market and manufacturing output are showing signs of stabilization or improvement in many parts of the country, but consumer spending and hiring isn’t budging, according to reports by the Labor Department and Federal Reserve released Wednesday.

“You are in that period where the recession is over but you don’t have job growth. And until we get job growth, nobody is going to believe the recession is over,” John Canally, an economist for LPL Financial in Boston, said in a Wall Street Journal article.

The unemployment rate tops 10 percent in 14 states, according to the Labor Department.

While the business climate is getting better, the report also noted that the commercial real estate market is still weak. Regional banks haven’t freed up business lending, so many empty storefronts remain vacant.

Cities with federal projects funded by the federal stimulus bill, such as Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis and Dallas, are the only areas reporting an increase in commercial real estate activity, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Top economists see the beginning of an economic recovery but say high unemployment will continue through 2010, according to a July survey of 49 economists by USAToday.

The majority of the economists surveyed predicted the jobless rate will top 10 percent later this year. Unemployment figures released on Aug. 7 showed a slight decrease of 9.4 percent in July from 9.5 percent in June – the first time unemployment dipped in 15 months.

Economists told USAToday recovery will be “anemic” due in large part to massive consumer debt and a tight credit market. They did cite a few bright spots, though, with the majority saying existing home sales have bottomed out, consumer spending stabilized and CEO confidence growing.

For Raudel Sanchez and many other immigrant business owners in the United States, the current economic recession has taken a heavy toll and threatens to destroy their hard-won dreams.

Sanchez, 63, came to the U.S. from Mexico in 1967, and he worked up to 14 hours a day, saving money to bring his family to the country, said an article in USA Today.

Eventually Sanchez saved enough to open a small business empire that includes clothing stores, a restaurant and a record label. But with consumer spending and bank loans drying up, he’s stopped advertising, laid off employees and closed two of his businesses.

Immigrant-owned businesses are a cornerstone of the American economy. About 1.5 million immigrants own businesses and account for over 11 percent of all U.S. business income, said Rob Fairlie, an economics professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz, in a study for the Small Business Administration.

Because they have worked so hard and taken so many risks to build their businesses, “immigrants are much more likely to battle it out for longer” during a bad economy, Allert Brown-Gort, associate director of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, told USA Today.

Some economists believe that recovery will come slower to small businesses, but many immigrants said they still believe they will succeed.

Sanchez, for one, is sure the economy will rebound. “I still believe in this dream I had many years ago,” he told USA Today. “The only thing is you have to work hard.”

Consumer spending at major retailers dropped in May, the 10th month in a row of same-store sales declines, according to a survey by Goldman Sachs and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Overall same-store sales fell 4.6 percent, according to the Goldman Sachs study, worse than the 3 percent drop predicted.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has posted gains but stopped reporting its sales numbers in May. Other major retailers are still showing year-to-year declines, with Target’s May 2009 sales down 6 percent from May 2008, Costco’s sales were down 7 percent and Macy’s sales down 9 percent.

While consumer confidence has lifted, shoppers still aren’t ready to open up their wallets at the cash register, citing fears about job losses and falling home prices. Consumers are spending money on necessities like food and health care, said the Associated Press.

“I think the initial panic is over, but now the tough work begins. We’re entering a slow summer period when there’s not a lot to attract consumers into the stores,” BMO Capital Markets analyst John Morris told the Associated Press.