The Dow Jones Industrials popped 436.05 points, or 1.4%, to close at 32,197.59.
The S&P 500 rallied 102.5 points, or 2.6%, to 4,023.81
The NASDAQ leaped 469.85 points, or 4.1%, to 12,032.42.
Tech shares led gains after better-than-feared results from Alphabet and Microsoft.
Stocks hit their highs of the session in the afternoon as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell left the door open about the size of the central bank’s rate move at its next meeting in September and noted it would eventually slow the magnitude of rate hikes. Powell said in a press conference that the Fed could hike by 0.75 percentage point again in September, but that it would be dependent on the data.
Alphabet shares rose 8% after the tech giant’s quarterly report showed strong revenue from Google’s search business. Microsoft gained about 6.5% after reporting a 40% jump in revenue growth for Azure and cloud services.
The gains came even after both companies posted earnings and revenue that fell below analyst estimates.
Meta Platforms shares rose 5%, ahead of its earnings scheduled for after the bell. Amazon advanced more than 3% after getting hit by the retail carnage Tuesday. Apple added more than 1.5%.
Retailers rallied too as inflation concerns softened Wednesday afternoon. Walmart, which led retail declines in the previous session, climbed 3.5%. Target, Kohl’s, Ross Stores and Costco added more than 2% each.
Enphase Energy also popped on the back of its latest results, trading about 15% higher. Chipotle also added 13% following its mixed second-quarter earnings release.
More than 150 S&P 500 companies have reported calendar second-quarter earnings thus far. Of those names, roughly 70% have beaten analyst expectations
Treasury prices gained a bit of ground, lowering yields to 2.79%, from Tuesday’s 2.80%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices restocked $3.11 to $98.09 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices recaptured $14.30 to $1,732.00 U.S. an ounce.