One of the most memorable months in Wall Street history ended in a sea of green on Tuesday, easing some of the pain from the turmoil of the past four weeks.

The Dow answered its worst ever single-day point loss with one of its best point gains in history, in part on hopes Congress will eventually pass a financial rescue bill that may be more favorable than the one it rejected a day ago.

Today's Market 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 485.21 points, or 4.68%, to 10850.66. The broader S&P 500 Index added 58.34 points, or 5.27%, to 1164.73, while the Nasdaq Composite Index picked up 98.60 points, or 4.97%, to 2082.33. The consumer-friendly Fox 50 Index rose 42.24 points, or 5.17%, to 859.05

“Yesterday was about fear, panic and frustration. Fear and panic that things were going to get a lot worse and frustration over the House's inability to pass the bailout bill," said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities. “Certainly there's a little bit more optimism about things today. We’ll have to see if it comes to fruition.”

The Dow's huge rally was the third highest one-day point jump in the index's history. On a percentage basis, the gains didn't crack the top 20 best performances. 

Market participants and observers cited a myriad of positive factors contributing to Tuesday's huge rally, including a technical bounce from a record selloff, fewer sellers due to the Jewish holiday and hopes Congress will pass legislation that will pave the way for a $700 billion rescue plan.

“There is building sentiment that Congress will put something on the table and get it passed. Some of the possible additions [to the legislation] look attractive," said Frank Davis, director of sales and trading at Lek Securities. 

“If anything is going to move Congress it’s the fact that we lost $1 trillion yesterday here on the New York Stock Exchange,” NYSE trader Alan Valdes of Hilliard Lyons told FOX Business.

Tuesday's gains on the Dow were led by financial giants Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), all of which enjoyed double-digit percentage gains. Caterpillar (CAT) was the lone blue-chip stock failing to join in the rally. 

Tuesday’s gains cap a tumultuous month during which the Dow fell more than 600 points amid a rapidly-changing financial system.

In the past four weeks, the government nationalized mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), allowed investment bank Lehman Brothers (LEH) to file for bankruptcy, gave insurer American International Group (AIG) an emergency $85 billion loan and assisted in the takeover of Wachovia (WB).

At the same time, Washington Mutual (WM) became the largest banking failure ever, Merrill Lynch (MER) sold itself to Bank of America (BAC) and banking giants Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) transformed into commercial banks.

While the markets were betting a bailout will come sooner rather than later, there were no major breakthroughs Tuesday. Congress was on break for the Jewish holiday but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to President Bush saying they are confident Congress will pass a "responsible" bailout bill "in the very near future." 

For his part, Bush made a new urgent plea for lawmakers to pass the legislation his administration says is necessary to avoid a financial meltdown. The bill, which was narrowly defeated on Monday, would have authorized the Treasury to buy and hold up to $700 billion of toxic assets that are stuck on banks' balance sheets. 

The markets were also given a lift by a pair of potential supplements to the rescue plan that gained traction on Tuesday.  

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly planning on releasing guidance on fair value accounting this week, raising the possibility regulators will change the rules that have forced banks to write down billions of dollars of toxic assets.

Also, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it would be helpful to raise the cap on deposit insurance. Both presidential candidates have backed this idea. 

Banks surged across the board on Tuesday, making up some of the ground they lost a day ago. Some of the biggest percentage gains came from banks that plummeted on Monday, including National City (NCC), Genworth Financial (GNW), Wachovia (WB) and Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB). 

Meanwhile, crude oil prices nearly slashed Monday's losses in half, closing back above $100 a barrel. Crude closed up $4.17 to $100.26 a barrel. 

The rebound in oil prices helped lift energy stocks, which were the biggest gainers on Tuesday. Southwestern Energy (SWN) and Hess (HES) outpaced rivals with gains of more than 7% a piece. 

Tuesday also saw the worst single-day performance for the euro since the currency's inception in 1999, according to Bloomberg News. The euro plunged 2.1% to $1.4080 after European governments came to the rescue of another bank. 

Corporate Movers

Merrill Lynch (MER) traded higher after Singapore’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Temasek Holdings, raised its passive stake in the financial giant to 13.7% from 9.4%.

Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) nearly reversed Monday's 72% plunge with a surge of 69% after The Wall Street Journal reported the embattled regional bank will replace CEO Joseph Campanelli with Paul Perrault. 

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) may cut up to 850 jobs in research and development, The Journal reported. 

Genworth Financial (GNW) saw its shares jump 72% after it said it may spin off its U.S. mortgage insurance business. 

Data Dump

The markets barely reacted to a trio of mixed economic reports on Tuesday. The S&P Case-Shiller home price indexes plunged by record amounts, giving further evidence of the housing slump's impact. 

Consumer confidence unexpectedly improved in September to a reading of 59.8, according to private research group Conference Board. Also, the Chicago Purchasing Management index, which gauges manufacturing activity, fell to a reading of 56.7 in September, topping expectations for a 53 reading.

Global Markets

European markets shook off early losses to close sharply higher on Tuesday. 

The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 Index rose 30.01 points, or 1.00%, to 3038.20. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 gained 83.68 points, to 1.74%, to 4902.45. 

Asian markets also recovered from steep early declines. 

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei Index dropped 483.75 points, or 4.12%, to 11259.86 - the index had been down as much as 10% in early Japanese trading. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng gained 135.53, to 0.76%, to 18016.21. That index was down as much as 5% earlier.