Investors reignited the market's two-week rally, cheering the government's plan to help banks remove bad assets from their books. They're also pleased with a report showing a surprising increase in existing home sales last month.

The Dow has ended the day up 497 points at 7,775 after rising more than 500 just before the closing bell. That was its biggest point gain in more than four months.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 54 at 822 and the Nasdaq composite is up 98 at 1,555.

More than 2,800 stocks rose on the New York Stock Exchange, while just 262 fell. Volume came to a very heavy 1.91 billion shares.

Hawaii Superferry, which operates an Oahu-Maui catamaran that can accommodate 836 passengers and about 200 vehicles, was forced into the move Monday.

The high court rejected a state law that allowed the company to operate while an environmental study is being conducted.

Superferry said in a statement that it was "hugely disappointed" in the decision.

In order to proceed prudently, the company said it had "decided to cease operations for the present."

Superferry says it will make one additional Honolulu-Maui round trip Thursday to get vehicles back to their home islands.

In a conversation focused heavily on the economy, Obama met in the Oval Office with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It was the latest in a series of talks the president has had with his counterparts around the world before a pair of international meetings where the economic crisis will dominate.

Both leaders will attend the Group of 20 countries summit in London on April 2, and the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad in mid-April.

Obama said the notion that the U.S. and Europe are already taking sides, with America pushing for more stimulus spending and European nations favoring tighter regulation of the financial industry, is a "phony debate."

U.S. District Judge Marcia S. Krieger on Wednesday told Nacchio to report to the minimum-security Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill satellite camp in Minersville, Pa., by noon March 23.

A jury convicted Nacchio in 2007 of 19 counts of insider trading while acquitting him on 23 counts of the same charge.

Federal prosecutors alleged Nacchio sold $52 million worth of stock at a time when he knew Denver-based Qwest Communications International Inc. was at risk while other investors did not.

A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in a 2-1 ruling, saying the trial judge improperly barred a defense expert from testifying. The full appeals court last week disagreed and upheld Nacchio's conviction. The full court ruled 5-4 that the judge was within his discretion.

Nacchio's attorney, Maureen Mahoney, has indicated an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is likely. Nacchio also has challenged his sentence.

Mahoney was in a meeting Wednesday afternoon and did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The company said the bonuses are needed to dissuade the 154 employees from leaving before what was the nation's second-largest consumer electronics retailer closes for good.

Employee turnover threatens the wind-down plan and the company's ability to "maximize value for their estates and stakeholders," Richmond-based Circuit City said in the filing.

Circuit City has already had some key employees leave, including former chief financial officer Bruce H. Besanko, who will start in a similar role at OfficeMax Inc. on Feb. 16.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November as it faced pressure from vendors, heightened competition and waning consumer spending. Last month Circuit City announced it would liquidate its 567 U.S. stores, cutting more than 34,000 jobs.

Going-out-of-business sales should last through March, after which the stores will be closed. A small staff will keep working at the corporate office through the process.

Under the company's proposal, 16 executives would split up to $2.3 million if they achieve specific target tasks such as staying within the wind-down budget and obtaining the sale of Circuit City's Canadian and Internet assets. The remaining non-managerial workers would share no more than $1.62 million.

Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago.

The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007.

The extraordinary full-year profit wasn't a surprise given crude's triple-digit price for much of 2008, peaking near an unheard of $150 a barrel in July. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis.

In the fourth quarter alone crude tumbled 60 percent, prompting spending and job cuts in an industry that was reporting robust, often record, profits as recently as last summer.

With piles of cash and diversified operations, the majors like Exxon Mobil have fared better than many smaller oil and gas companies, but Friday's results show no one is completely insulated from the ongoing malaise.

Irving, Texas-based Exxon said net income slid sharply to $7.8 billion, or $1.55 a share, in the October-December period. That compared with $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, in the same period a year ago, when Exxon set a U.S. record for quarterly profit. It has since topped that mark twice, first in last year's second quarter and then with earnings of $14.83 billion in the third quarter.