Stocks on Wall Street closed broadly higher Wednesday as investors welcomed encouraging economic data and quarterly earnings reports from big companies including Starbucks.
The S&P 500 rose 1.6 percent to an almost 2-month high, while the Nasdaq gained 2.6 percent. Both indexes more than recouped losses earlier in the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3 percent and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies ended 1.4 percent higher.
