Stocks in the United States made strong gains on Wednesday, after results from Intel Corp lifted hopes for a rebound in technology spending.
The S&P 500 has gained 6.1% so far this week, as companies, including Intel and Goldman Sachs Group, posted results that were much better than expected.
Shares in Intel, the world's largest chip maker, rose 7.3% to $US18.05.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 256.72 points, or 3.07%, to 8,616.21.
Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 26.84 points, or 2.96%, to 932.68 - its best gain in nearly two months. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 63.17 points, or 3.51%, to 1,862.90.
Results are expected on Thursday from International Business Machines and Google. IBM's stock climbed 3.9% to $%107.22 on the NYSE, while Google's shares gained 3.2% to $438.17 on Nasdaq.
Volume was moderate on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1.37 billion shares changing hands - below last year's estimated daily average of 1.49 billion.
About 2.53 billion shares were traded on the Nasdaq - above last year's daily average of 2.28 billion.
