For Wall Street, it came not a moment too soon. The dismal week before wiped out about $2.4 trillion in shareholder wealth. The eight-day losing streak drained 2,400 points from the Dow, or 22 percent — roughly equal to the 1987 crash and enough to establish a bear market all on its own.

U.S. stock market paper gains totaled $1.2 trillion Monday, according to the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, which represents nearly all stocks traded in America.

The massive rebound also pushed the Nasdaq composite index higher by 195 points, or nearly 12 percent, its second-biggest gain in percentage terms. The Standard and Poor's 500 rose 104 points, its biggest point gain ever and an 11.5 percent gain, its greatest since 1933.

About 3,030 stocks advanced on the New York Stock Exchange, while only about 160 declined — a reversal from last week, when declining stocks overwhelmed the gainers. But the trading volume of 1.82 billion shares was lighter than it had been last week, suggesting there was less conviction in the buying than during last week's selling.

At the close, the Dow stood at 9,387.61. That's still a far cry from its peak of 14,165, set a little more than a year ago — and history suggests Wall Street could have a long climb back to the top of the mountain.

After the Black Monday crash of October 1987, it took the Dow until August 1989 to set a new all-time closing high, almost two years after its previous peak. The 1987 crash took stocks down 36 percent from their peak — comparable to the 40 percent decline in this round of turmoil.

Late Monday, government officials and industry executives said the Bush administration will use $250 billion of the $700 billion bailout program recently passed by Congress to buy into U.S. banks, the officials said. The government initially will buy stock of nine large banks, but the program is expected to be expanded to many others.

Among the initial banks participating will be all of the country's largest institutions, including Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley, said one official, who added that administration briefers did not provide any amounts that would be received by individual banks.

Neel Kashkari, the assistant Treasury secretary in charge of the program, said earlier Monday that officials were also developing guidelines to govern the purchase of soured mortgage-related assets. He gave few details about how the program will actually buy bad assets and bank stock.

And Wall Street still has a lot to worry about, including a housing market that is still groping for a low point in prices and shoppers who are spooked by job losses and other ominous economic signs and are cutting back on their spending.