Stocks Soar, Ending 6-Day Slump

U.S. stocks came roaring back on Wednesday, ending six straight days of losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 619 points, up 4 percent, to close at 16,286. The S&P 500 rose 73 points, 3.9 percent, to end at 1,941, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 191 points, 4.2 percent, to 4,698.

Unlike yesterday, when strong early gains evaporated in the final hour of trading, markets pushed higher into the finishing bell.

"There's a lot of cash on the sidelines waiting to get in, so to the extent that there's any sort of bottom seen, that will increase people's confidence and boldness," said Erik Davidson, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank.

The surge ended what had been the longest slide in more than three years. Over that time, the Dow lost 1,900 points over that period, while the slump wiped more than $2 trillion off the value of S&P 500 companies.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 71 cents to $39.10 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell 70 cents to $43.14.

Gold fell $13.70 to $1,124.60 an ounce. Silver dropped 56.9 cents to $14.04 an ounce. Copper fell 6.6 cents to $2.25 a pound.