NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks staged a rapid comeback in late-afternoon trading to close solidly higher Wednesday, helped by a surge in the price of oil and a decline in the U.S. dollar.
Chipotle Mexican Grill fell as the company said a federal investigation into its E. coli outbreak had widened. Yahoo also sank as the troubled Internet company announced layoffs and plans to sell businesses.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 183.12 points, or 1.1 percent, to 16,336.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9.50 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,912.53 and the Nasdaq composite fell 12.71 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,504.24.
It was a day of major swings. The Dow had been down nearly 200 points earlier. Major industries that were deep in the red, like energy and financials, were able to recover almost all the ground they lost. In the red most of the day, energy stocks ended up nearly 4 percent.
The gains can be largely attributed to a decline in the value of the dollar against other major currencies. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the dollar against other major currencies, fell 1.7 percent, a large move for the foreign exchange market.
Nearly all that decline happened in the last two hours of trading.