New York - Stocks rallied on Wall Street Wednesday after better-than-expected earnings reports at Wells Fargo bank caused investors to buy-up financial shares.

"It was really quite an extraordinary rally," John Carey of Pioneer Investment Management told Bloomberg financial news. "There was panic buying. A lot of people have been quite underweight the financials, and yet they remain an important part of the market. If there's a sense they're going to move higher, you have a lot of people coming in to buy all the names at the same time."

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average picked up 276.74 points, or 2.5 per cent, to 11,239.28. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index earned 30.45 points, or 2.5 per cent, to 1,245.36. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 69.14 points, or 3.1 per cent, to 2,284.85.

The dollar rose to 63.21 euro cents from 62.90 euro cents on Tuesday, and 105.10 Japanese yen from 104.77.

Gold increased 70 cents to 978.70 dollars per fine ounce. (dpa)