New York - US stocks snapped a five-day losing streak on Tuesday, posting strong gains after positive earnings from UPS and a big rally in petroleum-linked stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 189.68 points (1.09%) to 17 630.27.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 25.61 (1.24%) at 2 093.25, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 49.43 (0.98%) to 5 089.21.
Shipping company UPS powered up 5.1% after reporting second-quarter net income of $1.2bn, up from $454m in the year-ago period.
Dow member ExxonMobil jumped 4.1%, while fellow oil and gas producers Apache and ConocoPhillips gained 4.4% and 3.1%, respectively, as oil prices stabilized after a dive.
"It's not particularly surprising to see the market acting a little better today as we got significantly oversold," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities.
Investors were looking ahead to a policy announcement on Wednesday from the US Federal Reserve that could signal the timing of an interest rate increase later this year.
Intel rose 2.2% and Micron Technology surged 9.0% after the two chipmakers unveiled what they touted as a "breakthrough" memory chip that permits users to store and process huge amounts of data more quickly.
Amgen leaped 4.4% on speculation the biotech company could be an acquisition target. RBC Capital said a takeover of Amgen probably is not feasible until at least 2016, but predicted the company could boost its earnings outlook when it reports results later this week.
Pfizer jumped 2.9% after it lifted its 2015 profit forecast following second-quarter earnings of 56 cents per share, four cents above analyst expectations.
Ford gained 1.9%. The second-largest US automaker said profit soared 44% in the second quarter, its best quarter in 15 years.
General Motors climbed 0.9% after announcing it would spend $5bn to launch a new family of Chevrolet vehicles targeted for emerging markets, co-developed by Chinese partner SAIC Motor.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.25% from 2.22% on Monday, while the 30-year advanced to 2.97% from 2.94%. Bond prices and yields move inversely.