A move by the world’s central banks to lower the cost of borrowing exhilarated investors Wednesday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average soaring 490 points and easing fears of a global credit crisis similar to the one that followed the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers.
It was the Dow’s biggest gain since March 2009.
Large U.S. banks were among the top performers, jumping as much as 7 percent. Markets in Europe surged, too, with Germany’s DAX index climbing 5 percent.