In all, the Dow swung by more than 420 points from its low early Tuesday morning to its high just before the 4 p.m. close.
In his remarks to the congressional Joint Economic Committee, Bernanke said the economy was growing more slowly than the Federal Reserve had expected, adding that the biggest factor depressing consumer confidence was poor job growth.
"We need to make sure that the recovery continues and doesn't drop back and that the unemployment rate continues to fall downward," Bernanke said.
The Fed chairman warned lawmakers against cutting the budget too sharply with the U.S. economy still weak and facing new stresses from the European debt crisis.
The central bank chief also expressed some empathy with protesters who have marched on Wall Street and in other cities in recent days complaining of the role of big financial institutions in creating the current economic mess.
"Very generally, I think people are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what's happening. They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess, and they're dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington," Bernanke told the committee.
"On some level I can't blame them," he said. "Like everyone else, I'm dissatisfied with what the economy is doing right now."
Bernanke noted the difficulty for Congress to rein in the long-term federal budget deficit while trying "to avoid fiscal actions that could impede the ongoing economic recovery" from the recession. Though the recession officially ended in June 2009, the housing and job markets continue to be weak and a drag on the whole economy.
