Wall Street ended a temperamental session widely mixed today after investors grappled with JPMorgan Chase & Co’s government-backed buy-out of stricken investment bank Bear Stearns.

Wall Street rebounded fitfully today from the previous session’s 416-point plunge in the Dow industrials as investors took comfort from comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke but still showed signs of unease about the economy.

Gambling that the economy would not get much worse and business would improve next year, investors pushed the US stock market mostly higher today for a second straight day.