The market today took its head out of the oven, thanks to a decline in oil prices and talk from Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn reinforcing the need for further rate cuts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 322 points to 13,280.76 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index surged 74.86 to 2,655.66. The S&P 500 jumped 37.94 to 14,566.17. CNBC's anchors were positively orgasmic, saying it was the best one-day point gain for the year, even though home sales and durable goods orders continue to be weak.

Beaten-up financial stocks rebounded. Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), which had gotten pounded because of subprime mortgage concerns, surged $4.42, or 8.3%, to $57.49. Citigroup (NYSE: C), another stock in Wall Street's doghouse until recently, jumped $2.13. or 7%, to $32.45. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), Bear Stearns & Co. (NYSE: BSC), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and even Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) also showed gains.

"Kohn's comments just add to a perception that the Fed is embarking on a sustained path of easing,'' Oppenheimer Holdings Chief Investment Strategist Michael Metz told Bloomberg News. "There's also huge relief that the worst of the financial crisis may be behind us.''

Other stocks showing gains include Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), which dodged a huge regulatory bullet from the FCC. Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), perhaps the most sensitive to worries about consumer spending, also rose, as did tech heavyweights such as Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Not everyone was impressed.

Tom Higgins, chief economist at Payden & Rygel, told the Wall Street Journal that "it's more of a technical correction of oversold conditions.There's no fundamental reason that today should [bring a] rally."