US stocks surge

New York - US stocks rose sharply Friday, ending a two-day slide with a rally led by Apple and other tech stocks and extending to most industrial sectors.

At the closing bell, the tech-rich Nasdaq stood with the biggest gains, rising 63.97 points (1.29%) to 4 479.06.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 179.63 (1.01%) at 18 020.15, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 22.49 (1.08%) to 2 108.00. All but four companies in the 30-stock Dow finished higher.

"We got a little bit oversold yesterday," said Mace Blicksilver, director of Marblehead Asset Management.

Apple, which had lost 5.7% in the prior three sessions, shot up 3.0%.

Biotech stocks, another underperformer this week, surged after Gilead Sciences (+4.5%) reported that first-quarter net income nearly doubled to $4.3bn.

Amgen advanced 1.5%, Biogen rose 3.4% and Celgene added 2.3%.