Maybe, just maybe, Ben Bernanke knows what he’s talking about after all.  It’s been about one week after the Federal Reserve Chairman said some nice, calming things about the economy, and today, the Dow went up like a rocket.

Yes, instead of plunging 300 points, the Dow rose by 497.48 points (or 6.84 percent).  The Nasdaq gained 98.50 points (or a similar 6.76 percent).  This put both indexes into territory not seen since mid-February.

A report on home sales in that month is thought to be one reason everything headed upwards; apparently purchases rose by 5.1 percent as people were motivated to act by low prices, and the real estate market has been one of the sectors hardest hit by the recession, of course.

The Treasury Department also discussed its plan to have private entities buy up toxic assets, and although a lot of details haven’t yet been nailed down, it doesn’t look like any parties (corporations, taxpayers) are getting asked to fall on their swords.

So (as long as hyperinflation doesn’t kick in) let’s hope we get a few more weeks’ worth of news like this to discuss.