Jackson Free Press

The New York Times is reporting:

A rescue plan for Citigroup turned into a boon for Wall Street on Monday, as stocks surged higher on the strength of financial firms buoyed by the government's sweeping plan to assist the ailing banking giant.The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index soared 6.4 percent or 51.78 points, bringing its two-day gain to 12.8 percent and erasing all of last week's painful losses. Those declines had worried investors, but the Citi plan appears to have placated those anxieties for now. "It's big and it's relevant. This is a big number," said David Kovacs, chief quantitative investment officer at Turner Investment Partners, referring to the day's gains.

The Dow Jones industrials jumped 396.97 points or 4.9 percent to close at 8,443.39, back to its level from last Wednesday. Shares of Citigroup — perhaps the gauge most widely watched on Monday — were 55 percent higher and traded above $6 a share for the first time since Thursday.

Monday's session suggested that government's actions to stanch the losses had passed a critical test of investor confidence. Few of the enormous federal bailout efforts over the last year have been met with such an unequivocally positive reaction.