It was the Dow Jones industrial average’s biggest gain in five weeks.
In the absence of any major new economic data, investors focused on companies reporting quarterly earnings or otherwise garnering headlines.
Tiffany & Co. was a favorite early on, vaulting more than 9 percent on a sharp increase in earnings and revenue. Traders also cheered news of Netflix’s plans to make a deeper foray into Europe, sending the Internet video service’s shares up 5 percent.
Investors got a closer look at discussions held by the Federal Reserve’s policymakers in their most recent meeting last month. Wall Street’s reaction was muted, however, and the market kept on the upward trajectory it set upon early on.
U.S. index futures rose before the opening of regular stock trading. The market opened higher and stayed in positive territory throughout the day.
Major indexes have finished higher three of the last four trading days.
“Since there was no real solid news to continue into a two-day sell-off, we’re getting a little bit of a bounce today,” said Joe Peta, a managing director of Novus.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 15.20 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 1,888.03. The index is up 2.2 percent for the year.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 158.75 points, or nearly 1 percent, to end at 16,533.06. The Nasdaq composite index added 34.65 points, or 0.9 percent, to finish at 4,131.54.
The Dow and Nasdaq remain down for 2014.
Small-company stocks also rebounded. The Russell 2000 index rose 5.73 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,103.63.
Bond prices fell, driving the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note up to 2.54 percent from 2.51 percent late Tuesday.
All 10 industry sectors in the S&P 500 rose, led by consumer discretionary and energy stocks.
The stock market has fluctuated between gains and losses on an almost daily basis as investors try to get a better handle on the trajectory of the economy following a weak start to the year.
That pattern continued even after the S&P 500 hit a high early last week.
In all, the market has changed course from one day to another nearly 60 percent of the time so far this year, something not seen since 2008 during the financial crisis, Peta said.
“It is a schizophrenic market that doesn’t seem to have much of a memory from one day to the next,” he said.
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