US stocks are way up today.

MarketWatch reports that the Dow had its “greatest intraday point gain on record after a frantic weekend of international government actions bolstered confidence in the banking sector and credit markets.”

The US benchmark is now well on track to record its biggest ever gain in terms of percentage points.

The Dow was recently ahead 587.17 points, or 6.9%, to 9,038.36.

Struggling car maker General Motors (NYSE:GE) surged more than 30% today alone after reports the auto giant had contemplated a merger.

Read on at MarketWactch.com.

PS: On Friday, we published a recommendation by Today’s Financial News editor J. Christoph Amberger. In it advised investors to buy into shares in General Motors as well as in Ford Motors (NYSE:F), Alon (NYSE:ALJ), Stewart Enterprises (NASDAQ:STEI), General Electric (NYSE:GE) and General Mills (NYSE: GIS).

J. Christoph had this to say:

Now, my general recommendation is not to panic during market downturns like this. To the contrary, history has proven time and time again that the seeds of wealth are sown during market crises… by buying good companies at crash valuations.

This is exactly what you need to be doing over the next couple of months. Buy judiciously and in controlled quantities, mind you… maybe by investing a fixed amount in stocks every week. Set aside fifty or 100 bucks of beer money… skip the kids’ video games, don’t allow them to buy another CD or iTune… cut down on their Christmas list… take the money you’d spend on pizza or lunches until Christmas… and religiously invest it in stocks.