It's Ben to the rescue

Helicopter Ben may be restarting the engine.

Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke offered the markets hope that the central bank might be willing to pump more cash into the financial system to help the floundering economy finally reach escape velocity.

"We have to keep all options on the table," Bernanke told Congress yesterday.

The central banker's remarks were delivered as a part of comments made during his twice-a-year so-called Humphrey-Hawkins update on monetary policy.

Bernanke's statements that the Fed is willing to do more to inject confidence into the markets and boost the economy is the clearest signal to date that the Fed has more economic policy arrows in its quiver and is willing to use them.

Late yesterday, though, Moody's Investors Service damped the mood, with the announcement that it was putting the US under review for a credit rating downgrade amid political gridlock over the lifting of the debt ceiling. Additional so-called quantitative easing would only add to that mountain of debt.

Nevertheless, Bernanke's vow of support provided a much-needed shot in the arm for a market saddled by worries over the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, European fiscal health, a lingering housing crisis and stagnant job market that produced a paltry 18,000 jobs last month.

Dow Jones industrials jumped 142 points at one point, and ended up 44.73 to 12,491.61, breaking a three-day losing streak. The S&P 500 index climbed 4.08 to close at 1,317.72 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 15.01 to 2,796.92.

Some of those gains may have been pared following remarks by Dallas Federal Reserve President Dick Fisher, who told the Rotary Club of Dallas he "firmly believes" the Fed has done all it can do to jump-start the stubbornly sluggish markets.

Bernanke told Congress he could keep rates at record lows, and the Fed could kick off a third round of quantitative easing, known informally as QE3, to ease market pressures.

The Fed agreed last month to end a $600 billion second round of bond buying, known as QE2. At that point, Bernanke said that another round of easing was unnecessary.

Vincent Reinhart, a scholar at conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, told The Post the Fed won't launch QE3 unless there's fear of deflation, or a general decline in prices of goods and services because of petering demand.

Bernanke also told Congress that not raising the debt ceiling could result in another "major crisis" in the markets.

mark.decambre@nypost.com