The Dow Jones industrial average was up 1.73 percent in early trade, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 2.2 percent. The dollar rose 1 percent against the yen and oil rebounded by more than $2 a barrel as fears about a worldwide financial meltdown eased.

In Europe, Ireland unveiled a blanket guarantee for savings held by its banks, covering up to 400 billion euros ($575 billion) in liabilities, sending Irish bank stocks roaring up against a weaker sector trend.

Russia for the second time in a month briefly clamped its stock markets shut after just seconds of trading.

Shares of British bank HBOS Plc fell on fears that Lloyds TSB Group Plc could renegotiate a deal to buy HBOS.

France joined Belgium and Luxembourg in a 6.4 billion euro lifeline for bank Dexia and said it would come to the aid of savers with new bank measures by the end of the week.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy began talks on the crisis with finance executives on Tuesday. He has said he will meet this week with officials from Europe’s G8 member states –

Leaders are trying to reassure global markets as financial shares reel, threatening the existence of major banks, which have stopped lending to one another despite enormous injections of funds by central banks.

Facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, global central banks scrambled again to try to relieve a severe squeeze in money markets by more than doubling the amount of dollar funding to $620 billion.

Bans on short-selling stocks spread to Russia, South Korea and Taiwan. Nervous investors piled into gold and U.S. Treasuries. Oil fell on fears of further economic slowdown, and the Japanese yen hit a four-month high.

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