U.S. stocks rallied on Monday, with major averages getting best gains in about two weeks, after the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank will bolster the economy if the recovery weakens.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 160.90 points, or 1.23 percent, to 13,241.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 was up 19.40 points, or 1.39 percent, to 1,416.51. The Nasdaq Composite Index points gained 54.65 points, or 1.78 percent, to 3,122.57.

Major averages were on track to their best quarterly gains in years. The blue-chip Dow has been up 8.4 percent for the year. The broader S&P 500 has been up 12.6 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has surged nearly 20 percent since the beginning of the year.

During a speech at the National Association for Business Economics spring conference Monday, Bernanke said that despite recent improvement, the job market remains weak. He emphasized on strengthening economic growth to help create jobs.

His comments were not surprising to the market but still reassuring. Investors believed that the Fed would keep the ultra- low interest rate for quite a long period of time and there are possibilities that the central bank may pump more liquidity to the market if the recovery momentum weakened.

Monday's economic news was also encouraging. According to the National Association of Realtors, the index of pending home sales fell 0.5 percent to 96.5 after a 2-percent increase the prior month. The index now is holding around an almost two-year high, a sign that the housing market may slowly bottomed up.

Monday's rally helped erase most of the losses in the previous week, in which Wall Street suffered its worst week in the year on concerns over a slowdown in the world economy.

In other markets on Monday, the U.S. dollar fell against major currencies in late New York trading on Monday while crude prices inched up as the dollar weakened.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery gained 16 cents, or 0.15 percent to settle at 107.03 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for May delivery also edged up 52 cents, or 0.42 percent to close at 125.65 dollars a barrel.