Wall Street enjoyed its first win streak in nearly a month on Monday as the Dow posted its best two-day percentage gain since October 1987. 

All it took was the unveiling of President-elect Obama's team of economic advisers and a $300 billion lifeline for beleaguered financial titan Citigroup. 

Today's Market

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 396.97 points, or 4.93%, to 8443.39, the broader S&P 500 picked up 51.78 points, or 6.47%, to 851.81 and the Nasdaq Composite added 87.67 points, or 6.33%, to 1472.02. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 gained 36.11 points, or 5.73%, to 666.00

Led by a 55% surge for Citigroup (C), the markets enjoyed a massive rally on Monday, bringing the two-day gains to 883 points, the largest two-day tally in the Dow's history. 

"I'll take it," said Steve Sachs, director of trading at Rydex Investments. "I think we need a couple more days like this. I don't think it's going to take much to change the emotion from 'I’ve got to sell' to 'I don’t want to miss this bear-market rally.'”

Monday marked the first consecutive days of green on Wall Street since October 30 and 31. Since then, nearly all rallies were sandwiched between triple-digit declines, cementing this as one of the worst bear markets in nearly a century. The gains nearly erased last week's 450-point plunge on the Dow. 

Nearly all 30 components of the Dow closed in the green Monday. Citigroup (C) was hands down the biggest winner on the index, soaring on the government's rescue efforts. Financial giants Bank of America (BAC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) enjoyed double-digit percentage gains. Defensive stock Wal-Mart (WMT), one of the Dow's best performing stocks on the year, was the lone declining stock on the index. 

“People look at this market and say a lot of the things we were worried about last week, we now have answers to,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.

Aside from the government rescue of Citigroup, the markets were more confident about President-elect Obama after he unveiled his economic team, which is headlined by New York Fed Chief Timothy Geithner and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.

Also, worries about how the government will use its $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program have been eased by the Treasury’s use of the funds in the Citi bailout. The markets have been under new pressure after the Treasury said the TARP would be closed for toxic assets.

“It’s reopened but now in a hybrid fashion. I think that was the right thing to do. That adds stability and confidence for the financial system,” said Hogan.

Citi-Sized Rescue Rally

After a round of intense negotiations between the government and Citigroup, the U.S. said it will protect against potential losses on $306 billion of Citi's toxic assets and will also inject another $27 billion into the financial conglomerate. 

Financial stocks surged in response to the backstop plan, enjoying an 17% gain as a sector. Some of the hardest hit names rose much further, including Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Merrill Lynch (MER). The move sent shares of Citi soaring after its stock plummeted more than 60% last week on fears about new losses related to those toxic assets. 

"I think it’s huge. It’s very, very important that they actually did learn the lesson from Lehman that they cannot allow Citigroup to go bankrupt," said Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates. “This is another piece of the puzzle that allows investors to breathe easier that the government will stand behind the banks.”

(Click here to read more on what Citi's bailout means and what's next for the financial giant)

The Citi rescue adds to a laundry list of efforts by the U.S. to calm financial fears that have threatened to take down a cascade of financial giants. This year's efforts have helped save mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) and insurer American International Group (AIG) and led to the sales of Merrill Lynch (MER), Bear Stearns and Wachovia (WB). 

(Click here to read what influential analyst Meredith Whitney thinks of the Citi rescue)

It's clear the Citi rescue won't cure all that ails the credit markets, something underscored by the fact three banks failed on Friday alone. The government shut down a pair of California banks -- Downey Savings & Loan (DSL) and PFF Bank & Trust -- and regulators in Georgia closed Community Bank of Morganville. The failures bring the number of bank casualties to 23 this year -- the most since 50 banks failed in 1993. 

Obama Addresses Crisis

While he declined to give a ballpark figure to an economic stimulus package, Obama assured the public he would unveil an aggressive effort. Some reports have said the stimulus package could eclipse $700 billion.

Recent news, including the Citigroup rescue, "has made it even more clear that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions,” Obama said as he unveiled his new economic team.

Obama was negative on the economic outlook, saying: “The economy is likely to get worse before it gets better.” He added, "Most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year."

Crude Climbs Above $54

On the energy front, crude oil prices surged nearly 10% higher, boosted by the gains in the equities markets. Crude ended $4.57 higher to $54.50 a barrel in its strongest rally since November 4. The gains come as the national average price for a gallon of gasoline slipped below $2.00, erasing its climb to $4 earlier this year. 

The rise in oil prices comes in tandem with rallies in equities markets and also on hopes OPEC will further cut crude production at a weekend summit. Last week crude plummeted nearly $8, losing 13% of its value in its third consecutive weekly decline. 

Data Dump

The markets weren’t spooked by a new report that confirms the U.S. housing market remains in turmoil. The National Association of Realtors said sales fell by a worse-than-expected 3.1% in October as inventories declined by 0.9% to 4.23 million and median prices plunged 11.3% to a 4-1/2-year low of $183,300.

Corporate Movers

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) unveiled a $438 million deal to acquire Omrix Biopharmaceuticals (OMRI). The $25-a-share deal places a premium on Omrix's closing price of $21.16 on Friday. 

UBS (UBS) doesn't see a need for a further capital injection as the Swiss banking giant has already received two separate massive investments and help from the government, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing a UBS spokesman. 

Barclays (BCS) said its shareholders signed off on a controversial plan to raise $10.4 billion by selling equity to mostly Middle Eastern investors who could end up owning nearly one-third of the U.K. bank. 

Campbell Soup (CPB) beat the Street with adjusted-earnings of 77 cents per share in its fiscal third quarter but missed estimates with sales of $2.25 billion. 

Global Markets

European indexes posted titanic gains in response to the Citi rescue. 

Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 closed up 214.39 points, or 9.90%, to 2380.30 and London's FTSE 100 Index jumped 372.00 points, or 9.84%, to 4152.96. Other markets enjoyed even more massive gains as France's CAC 40 Index surged 290.85 points, or 10.10%, to 3172.11 and Germany's DAX Index gained 426.92 points, or 10.34%, to 4554.33

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped 201.26 points, or 1.59%, to 12457.94 while Japan's stock market was closed.