The Dow is back in the black for 2011 - thanks to a powerful rally - which swept blue chips to a near 500 point gain.<br/> Investors were encouraged by coordinated efforts by six of the world's central banks to provide more cheap cash to avoid a Lehman-style freeze up of financial markets. The U.S. Federal Reserve, The European Central Bank, and central banks from Japan, Britain, Canada, and Switzerland all took part.<br/> Max Wolff of Greencrest Capital:<br/> SOUNDBITE: MAX WOLFF, CHIEF ECONOMIST, GREENCREST CAPITAL (ENGLISH) SAYING:<br/> "Seeing the world come together, seeing the coordinated effort to save the euro zone, to save her money center banks; and to produce dollar liquidity, pump dollar liquidity into Western Europe is absolutely a good sign and certainly long absent. And you see the markets sigh a little bit of relief, the way markets do sigh a sign of relief, which is bidding up prices."<br/> But analysts warn markets will quickly go south if Europe does not move ahead with solutions for its two-year debt crisis.<br/> Nevertheless, Wall Street's biggest one-day gain since August was fueled by other factors too.<br/> China is hoping to give its economy a shot in the arm by loosening capital requirements for its big banks.<br/> In the United States, new data show the biggest pace of job creation in the private sector in nearly a year, a mid-west manufacturing sector that is growing faster than expected, and the Federal Reserve's summary of business conditions, known as the Beige Book, confirmed signs of a modest pick-up in economic activity around the country.<br/> Looking at the final numbers: Blue chips surged 490 points, the S&P 500 rallied 51 points. And the Nasdaq gained 104 percent.<br/> In Europe, Stocks in Germany rallied 5 percent, 4.2 percent in France, and 3.2 percent in the U.K.<br/> Conway Gittens, Reuters
