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New York - US stocks soared after the European Central Bank announced a huge bond-buying stimulus programme on Thursday, with banks and big tech stocks leading the way helped by a sharply higher dollar.
Rumours that Google is interested in buying Twitter - which could portend one of the largest-ever mergers in tech stocks - also fed the buying frenzy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 259.70 points (1.48%) at 17 813.98.
The S&P 500 surged 31.03 (1.53%) to 2 063.15, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 82.98 (1.78%) to 4 750.40.
It was the fourth straight day of gains for Wall Street, a streak that erased losses that had mounted from the beginning of the new year.
The spark for Thursday's buying was ECB chief Mario Draghi's announcement of a €60bn-a-month bond-buying programme to at least September 2016 aimed at sparking more investment and growth in the eurozone.
The announcement sent the euro down more than 2% against the dollar while boosting stocks across Europe.
The market appreciates the fact that the ECB has announced a programme that is better than expected, said Peter Cardillo of Rockwell Global Capital.
"We had expected something around €50bn a month."
"The ECB's actions will increase liquidity in the economy by giving bond holders liquid cash in place of less liquid bonds," said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.
"What happens to this liquidity will determine the outcome of this exercise. It could go into stocks or bonds, or housing... or be spent on Blu-rays and cars."
US blue chips were clearly beneficiaries. Bank stocks soared: Citigroup (+3.8%) Morgan Stanley (2.3%), Bank of America (4.4%), JPMorgan Chase (+3.0%) and Goldman Sachs (2.8%).
American Express though was a standout loser, dropping 3.8% despite a solid fourth quarter, with investors apparently spooked by a rise in expenses and provisions. The bank and credit card issuer said it would lay off 4 000 workers to cut costs.
In top tech stocks, Apple added 2.6%, eBay soared 7.1% helped by strong earnings, Amazon picked up 4.4% and Microsoft 2.6%.
Google made no comments on rumours it wants to buy Twitter, but the news sent Google up 3.2% and Twitter 3.3%.
Several airlines picked up on good quarterly reports and improved forecasts for 2015: United Continental (+4.5%), Southwest (+8.4%) and Alaska (4.6%). Overall the sector gained 6.3%.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 1.90% from 1.85% on Wednesday, while the 30-year jumped to 2.47% from 2.44%.
