Wall Street surges on hopes of credit recovery

Wall Street surged on a burst of optimism today, propelling the Dow Jones industrials up more than 400 points on more signs of a reviving credit market and comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Investors who had sold furiously in recent weeks in response to immobile credit markets became more optimistic as bank-to-bank lending rates eased further. There’s also less demand for the safest Treasury bills. And Bernanke has hinted that the government will take more steps to help the economy.