Dow up 420

Now I'm completely convinced that I have no damn clue what's going on:

At its 4 p.m. close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 420.41 points, or 3.51%, to 12392.66. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 54.15 points, or 4.23% to 1330.65 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 91.25 points, or 4.19%, to 2268.26. The consumer-friendly Fox 50 picked up 35.37 points, or 3.86%, to 952.26.

The rise was broad-based and in all the major industrial sectors. The Dow's 30 members were all in green, with 29 out of the 30 gaining more than 1%.

This is the second 400-plus point rally in the Dow this month. On March 11, the Dow closed up 416 points, only to give up part of those gains later in the week.

The financial companies were the biggest victors. Lehman Brothers, which had lost almost 50% of its value Monday, was up more 40%. MF Global (MF: 8.17, +2.12, +35.04%), a clearing house of futures and options, which had fallen more than 60% in trading yesterday, was up more than 30%.

Nice bounce back by Lehman Bros. and a nice kick in the ass by Goldman-Sachs as well.

How strong is American business that an icon can implode and two days later the market acts as if it never happened?

Major props to Bernanke and Bush for doing everything they can to lessen the chances of economic meltdown.