Big day for stocks - Dow up 322

Buying accelerated in the last 30 minutes of trading. The consensus explanation - you can take it or leave it - is that the worsening economic data could prompt Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to respond in some way later this week, although it's not at all clear what the central bank might do. So it's bad news that could turn out to be good news - well, sort of good news if you believe the Fed should be trying to pump up the economy. The alternative explanation for today's gain is that traders are simply responding to last week's losses. The Dow closed at 11,176, an almost 3 percent gain on the day.