Stocks record best day of 2014

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Wall Street had its best day of the year.

The U.S. stock market surged Wednesday, erasing a steep loss from the day before. Investors were encouraged by the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting, which showed that the central bank wants to keep interest rates extremely low for the time being.

“There’s a lot of pressure on the Fed right now, so this was a big vote of confidence from investors,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade.

The Dow Jones jumped 274.83 points, or 1.6 percent, to 16,994.22. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 33.79 points, or 1.8 percent, to 1,968.89 and the Nasdaq composite rose 83.39 points, or 1.9 percent, to 4,468.59. All three indexes had their biggest point and percentage gains of 2014.

The jump was the latest whipsaw day for the stock market.

Only the day before, the Dow plunged 273 points on fears that the global economy was slowing. Wednesday’s gains only made up for what investors lost Tuesday.