Major Averages Close Sharply Higher Following Recent Sell-Off

(RTTNews) - Following the sharp pullback seen over the course of the previous session, stocks showed a substantial move back to the upside on Wednesday. The gains on the day partly offset the steep drop seen over the past few sessions.

Most of the major sectors moved notably higher on the day, reflecting broad based buying interest on Wall Street.

Electronic storage stocks showed a particularly strong move to the upside, driving the NYSE Arca Disk Drive Index up by 6.4 percent. With the gain, the index bounced well off the two-year closing low set on Tuesday.

SanDisk (SNDK), Hutchinson Technology (HTCH), and EMC Corp. (EMC) turned in some of the storage sector's best performances.

Considerable strength was also visible among oil service stocks, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index jumping by 5.5 percent after ending the previous session at its lowest closing level in six years.

The rebound by oil service stocks came as traders went bargain hunting despite a decrease by the price of crude oil, as crude for October delivery fell $0.71 to $38.60 a barrel.

Semiconductor, internet, banking, and software stocks also saw significant strength on the day, while gold stocks were among the few groups to buck the uptrend.

The major averages saw continued strength going into the close, ending the session near their best levels of the day. The Dow jumped 619.07 points or 4 percent to 16,285.51, the Nasdaq soared 191.05 points or 4.2 percent to 4,697.54 and the S&P 500 surged up 72.90 points or 3.9 percent to 1,940.51.