Big gain for stocks as turbulent quarter ends

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. stocks rose across the board Wednesday following big gains in Asia and Europe, a buoyant end to the worst quarter for the market in four years.

Investors were in the mood to buy Wednesday, especially stocks that have been battered recently. Energy companies and raw material suppliers, the biggest losers in the quarter, rose more than 2 percent each.

The buying began at the opening of trading and swept across all 10 sectors of the Standard and Poor's 500 index.

The S&P 500 jumped 35.94 points, or 1.9 percent, to 1,920.03. The index has fallen seven of the past 10 days, and is off 6.9 percent in the July-September period, the worst quarterly performance since 2011.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 235.57 points, or 1.5 percent, to 16,284.70. It fell 7.6 percent in the quarter. The Nasdaq composite climbed 102.84 points, or 2.3 percent, to 4,620.16.

The rally in the U.S. followed even bigger gains overseas. Stocks indexes in France, Germany, Britain and Japan all climbed more than 2 percent.