Good day for stocks

At last! The Dow was up around 240 just a few minutes before the closing bell. That pushes the index into the 7360 range - and at least shows that there are a few investors out there willing to buy stocks (for a while, I wasn't sure). The question is what it means, if anything. Here is what Fed Chairman Bernanke told Congress this morning:

"If actions taken by the administration, the Congress and the Federal Reserve are successful in restoring some measure of financial stability — and only if that is the case, in my view — there is a reasonable prospect that the current recession will end in 2009 and that 2010 will be a year of recovery,” Mr. Bernanke said.

That's quite a sentence - "If actions ... are successful ... and only if that is the case ... a reasonable prospect..." Any more qualifiers and this guy could be an accountant for Bernie Madoff. Meantime, Bernanke continued to play down the need to nationalize the big banks. "I don't see any reason to destroy the franchise value or to create the huge legal uncertainties of trying to formally nationalize a bank when that just isn't necessary," he told the Senate Banking Committee. As you might guess, shares of the major banks rose substantially. I’m not sure that’s a vote of confidence or just a sigh of relief. (NYT)