NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Take that, bears! The banks and politicians can come out from hiding now. Yesterday's problems became today's silver lining. Thanks to an unexpected bank rally and agreement on Capitol Hill about legislation to crack down on corporate fraud, the market managed to end a four-day losing streak Wednesday.

The Dow gave us its best performance all year, climbing more than 6 percent -- 489 points! -- to 8,191.29. Nasdaq soared 61 points -- nearly 5 percent -- to 1,290.23. S&P closed up 46 percent -- almost 6 percent -- at 843.42.

STOCKYARD As expected, the markets opened down with a selling frenzy. But by midday, the U.S. markets were fighting back. J.P. Morgan rebounded after their conference call, which assuaged investors' fears, and Citibank shared in the glory, gaining $2.59 -- almost 10 percent -- to $29.59 after yesterday's brutal selloff. Merck helped out with a $10 billion stock repurchase plan.

Plus, there was some good earnings news: Reebok, MGM Mirage, and McDonald's all beat analyst expectations for second quarter. RBK added $2 to $25.44, MGG gained $2.64 to $31.59, and MCD closed down 7 cents to $23.77. Things at AFLAC are just ducky thanks to sales in Japan. After yesterday's earning announcement the insurance company's stock closed up $4 to $28.73 today.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia had a good quarter, too, but the company conceded that the insider-trading investigation could hurt future earnings. MSO closed down nearly $1 at $9.05. After the bell, AOL Time Warner (CNN/Money's parent company) reported flat 2Q earnings as the America Online division continued to weigh on the rest of the company. But at 24 cents a share, that was 2 cents better than the Street expected. AOL closed down 15 cents at $11.40. It also announced the SEC is conducting a "fact-finding" inquiry into the company's accounting, which was questioned in a Washington Post report last week; CEO Richard Parsons defended AOL's accounting.

ADELPHIA Put this one in the now-I-get-it file. When Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas was arrested this morning with two of his sons on federal securities and bank fraud charges, StreetLife wanted to gauge the mood in Coudersport, Pa., the cable company's headquarters. So we contacted Jimmie Bruzzi, the town dry cleaner, whose digs are just down the street from Adelphia's offices.

Here's what Jimmie had to say: "Things that go bump in the night. Whoa, things went THUD at daybreak for the residents of Coudersport, Pa., as all eyes were turned to TV sets showing Adelphia's founding father in Manhattan being led to an awaiting car in handcuffs...Reactions are running from 'Oh my God, that's terrible, what a shame,' to 'Oh well, *#&@ happens.' " Thanks, Devin (and Jimmie)!

AMAZON'S OPTIONS From Justin: "Amazon.com announced last night that it's going to expense stock options starting next year. This is a really big deal. It's pretty easy for companies like Bank One, Wachovia, and Coca-Cola to do the right thing and expense options, because they don't give out all that many anyway. But Amazon's a genuine options-happy Internet company. Its estimated options expense last year was $396 million, more than enough to wipe out its earnings, if it had any earnings.

Bezos was cryptic about how Amazon is going to handle the expensing. I don't know what choice he has other than to estimate their value using the Black-Scholes model, which is currently the preferred -- but not required -- accounting treatment and it delivers that $396 million figure. But whatever he comes up with, this amounts to a major breaking of ranks, and may mark the beginning of the end of the whole options-are-free religion." AMZN lost 45 cents to $14.10.

Pass the fries...The dollar may be weak as of late, but teenage purchasing power is not. A new study from MarketResearch.com reports that: "By 2006, 12- to 19-year-olds in the U.S. are projected to have a buying power that will top the $182 billion gross domestic product of Russia." It's no wonder McDonald's is doing well. That's a lot of dollars (or rubles). But my question is, what else are they buying? Do video games and Levi's cost that much?

The Tech Academy Awards...Well, not yet. This week the World Technology Network held its annual summit in NYC. The gathering brought together an impressive group of techies and business people. It's headed by Jim Clark (no, not the one of Netscape fame...although he is a member of the network.)

After two days of discussing nanotech (is it overhyped?), the pedal-powered aircraft Gossamer Albatross (the inventor, Paul McCready, was in attendance) and the current impediments to raising venture capital, the summit concluded with a gala award ceremony. So it's not the Oscars, maybe it's the "Jimmies," but it was a way to acknowledge a talented crew. Linux creator Linus Torvalds won for communications; William Hambrecht triumphed in the finance category beating out Wharton's Jeremy Siegel and Yale's Robert Shiller; and Ray Ozzie took home the "Jimmy" for IT software. (The list goes on.)

But my favorite summit factoid came from Brazilian technologist Vanda Scartezini. Yes, Brazil is proud of its football win, but she was more excited about the country's tech accomplishments. She told the audience that Brazil ran their 2000 election entirely over the Internet. And if I heard her correctly, the government sent wired boats down the Amazon for those without access. Florida take note!

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