Bernanke's comments came as

Bernanke's comments came as investors try to gauge how much gucci bags longer a nearly six-month rally in stocks will last and reinforced the view that further quantitative easing, or QE3, from the Fed may be possible. The S&P 500 is up 25 percent since the end of September, mostly on optimism about the pace of economic growth. With stimulus from the Fed and an improving economy, the climate for stocks is even friendlier. "There is still a lot of cash on the sidelines looking for a pullback, and I suspect some people over the weekend said, 'Yeah, maybe I'll put some money in,' and then you get Ben Bernanke's comments and that stoked the fire," said Bob Doll, BlackRock's vice chairman and global chief investment officer in New York. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI shot up 160.90 points, or 1.23 percent, to 13,241.63 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX gained 19.40 points, or 1.39 percent, to 1,416.51. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC climbed 54.65 points, or 1.78 percent, to 3,122.57. As the quarter draws to a close, hedge funds that have been gucci outlet underinvested in stocks could be doing some last-minute shopping for winners in the big rally, strategists said. Financials have led the rally, though almost all S&P 500 sectors are expected to post gains for the quarter. The S&P financial index .GSPF is up 23 percent, with just four days to go until the end of the quarter. In his talk, Bernanke said the U.S. economy needed to grow more quickly if it is to produce enough jobs to continue to bring down the unemployment rate. "Further significant improvements in the unemployment rate will likely require a more rapid expansion of production and demand from consumers and businesses, a process that can be supported by continued accommodative policies," Bernanke told a gathering of the National Association for Business Economics. The S&P index fell 0.5 percent last week, a relatively minor decline that was still the biggest weekly slide since the final week of December. Data on Monday showed pending home sales slipped 0.5 percent in February, according to the National Association of Realtors, confounding expectations for a rise of 1 percent. The Dow Jones U.S. home builders index .DJUSHB still managed a gain of 0.5 percent. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF.N) rallied 4.5 percent to $15.18 after the strong opening of its film "The Hunger Games," which made $214 million over the weekend globally. BATS Global Markets Inc (BATS.Z) on Sunday apologized for a system failure that caused shares in its own initial public offering to erroneously trade for less than a penny on Friday and resulted in Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) shares being temporarily halted. About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock gucci shoes Exchange, the Nasdaq and Amex, compared with the daily average for 2012 of about 6.86 billion shares. At that time, it had revealed a probe into the mysterious payments and warned that the impact of Libya's civil war would push its 2011 profit well below earlier forecasts. The news had stripped the company of almost 20 percent of its market value by early March. On Monday, the company said based on the findings of the independent review, it does not believe that these payments are related to Libya. The company said Ian Bourne, who has been a director since 2009, will take over as the interim CEO. A search for a new CEO will begin immediately, the company said. SNC, which had delayed releasing its quarterly and full-year results, reported a 52 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit. Montreal-based SNC's net income attributable to shareholders was down at C$76.0 million ($76.13 million), or 50 Canadian cents per share, from C$158.7 million, or C$1.04 per share, a year ago. The drop was mainly due to an operating loss at its infrastructure cheap gucci shoes and environment and the hydrocarbons and chemicals units, the company said. Revenue, however, rose 16 percent to C$2.12 billion.