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New York • Banks and other financial companies led U.S. stocks higher in afternoon trading Wednesday as the market bounced back from losses a day earlier.

Technology stocks were among the big gainers.

Energy companies also rose as the price of crude oil headed higher.

Utilities and real estate companies lagged the broader market rally.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 22 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,441 as of 12:19 p.m. Mountain time. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 154 points, or 0.7 percent, to 21,464. The Nasdaq composite added 78 points, or 1.3 percent, to 6,224. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks picked up 21 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,425. The market was coming off a broad sell-off led by technology stocks.

THE QUOTE: "Across the board, sector strength is very, very strong," said Marc Chaikin, CEO of Chaikin Analytics. "Whoever wanted to sell into the holiday weekend basically did it yesterday and we probably have a positive bias going into the four-day weekend."

BANKING ON FINANCIALS: Banks and other financial companies were trading higher for the second day in a row as bond yields and interest rates increased further. Higher rates let banks make bigger profits on mortgages and other types of loans. Bank of America was up 65 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $23.92. Capital One Financial picked up $1.73, or 2.1 percent, to $83.11. Prudential Financial rose $2.62, or 2.5 percent, to $107.22.

DISRUPTED: FedEx shares temporarily halted trading before the package delivery giant disclosed that an information system virus significantly affected the global operations of its TNT Express subsidiary. In a statement, FedEx said that while TNT's operations and communications systems were disrupted, "no data breach is known to have occurred." The company noted that operations of all other FedEx companies were unaffected. The stock rose $2.59, or 1.2 percent, to $216.92.

BEAT THE STREET: General Mills rose 2.1 percent after the maker of Cheerios cereal, Yoplait yogurt and other packaged foods served up fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded Wall Street's expectations. The stock picked up $1.15 to $56.67.

DONE DEAL: Spectranetics surged 26.6 percent after Dutch electronics and health care technology company Philips said it agreed to buy the medical device company for $38.50 a share, or $1.68 billion. Spectranetics gained $8.08 to $38.48.

HOME SWEET HOME: KB Home climbed 3.5 percent after the homebuilder reported strong earnings. The stock added 81 cents to $23.63.

DIALED IN: Cal-Amp was up 7.8 percent after the wireless communications company's latest quarterly results beat financial analysts' forecasts. The stock rose $1.50 to $20.75.

ENERGY: Oil futures were headed higher. Benchmark U.S. crude was up 49 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $44.73 a barrel in New York. The contract gained 86 cents on Tuesday. Brent crude, the international standard, was up 66 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $47.58 per barrel in London.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 112.22 from 112.15 yen late Monday. The euro strengthened to $1.1378 from $1.1347.

METALS: Gold rose $2.20 to settle at $1,249.10 per ounce. Silver added 14 cents to $16.73 per ounce. Copper gained 1 cent to $2.66 per pound.

BOND YIELDS: Bond prices fell. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 2.22 percent from 2.21 percent late Tuesday.

MARKETS ABROAD: Major stock indexes in Europe declined as investors fretted over the prospect of tighter monetary policy from major central banks. Germany's DAX slid 0.2 percent, while the CAC 40 of France fell 0.1 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.6 percent. In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.6 percent, while Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.5 percent. South Korea's Kospi shed 0.4 percent. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7 percent. Shares fell in Taiwan and most of Southeast Asia.