The Dow advanced 317.24 points or 0.7% to 44,873.28, the S&P 500 climbed 23.60 points or 0.4% to 6,061.48 and the Nasdaq rose 38.31 points or 0.2% to 19,692.33.
Treasury yields tumbled after the department signaled stability in auction sizes for upcoming quarters. The announcement suggested the Treasury is comfortable with current borrowing strategies, calming market uncertainties. Wall Street saw a tech stock selloff after Alphabet and AMD reported mixed earnings. Alphabet dropped 7.3% on cloud revenue concerns, while AMD fell 6.3% due to weak data center sales despite meeting overall financial targets.
The U.S. service sector growth unexpectedly slowed in January, with ISM's PMI dropping to 52.8 but still indicating expansion. ADP simultaneously reported a stronger-than-expected private sector employment increase of 183,000 jobs in January.
Gold stocks moved sharply higher on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 2.7% to a three-month closing high. The rally by gold stocks came as the price of the precious metal continues to climb to record highs amid concerns about the escalating U.S.-China trade war. Computer hardware stocks were considerably strong resulting in a 2.5% jump by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index. Semiconductor, telecom and biotechnology stocks too moved strongly upwards while airline saw significant weakness.
Asia-Pacific stocks ended mixed on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 inched up by 0.1% and South Korea's Kospi jumped by 1.1%, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid by 0.9%. The major European markets also turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2%, the German DAX Index rose by 0.4% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6%.
In the bond market, treasuries strongly moved upside, extending the advance seen over the course of the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, slumped 9.1 bps to 4.42%.