The Nasdaq jumped 288.40 points (1.3%) to 23,152.08, the S&P 500 climbed 56.06 points (0.8%) to 6,946.13 and the Dow rose 307.65 points (0.6%) to 49,482.15.
Nvidia jumped by 1.4% ahead of the release of its fourth quarter financial results after the close of today's trading. Tech giant IBM Corp. (IBM) also surged by 3.6%, continuing to regain ground following a nosedive on Monday after UBS upgraded its rating on the company's stock to Neutral from Sell. Oracle (ORCL) also shot up by 1.2% after Oppenheimer upgraded its rating on the software giant's stock to Outperform from Perform.
Software stocks turned in some of the market's best performances, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index spiking by 3.1%. The index continued to regain ground after slumping to its lowest closing level in ten months on Monday amid easing AI disruption concerns.
Substantial strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 2.9% surge by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index. Financial, networking and semiconductor stocks also saw significant strength while housing stocks moved sharply lower on the day.
Asia-Pacific stocks moved mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index surged by 2.2% while South Korea's Kospi shot up by 1.9%. The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1.2%, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.8% and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.5%.
In the bond market, treasuries saw modest weakness after ending the previous session roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note which moves opposite of its price, inched up by 1.5 bps to 4.04%.