The Dow Jones gained 1.00%, the Nasdaq index rose 1.79% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 1.42%.
"As fear recedes, people are more attracted to stocks," said Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.
The VIX index, which measures market volatility, fell Wednesday to its lowest level since March 9, the day before U.S. regulators took control of regional bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
The stabilization of bond yields has also helped put stocks back on track, Hogan added.
The yield on 10-year U.S. government bonds ended unchanged at 3.56%, which had not happened for three weeks.
For Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital, the fact that the S&P 500 index managed to hold above 4,000 points at the close is an encouraging sign because "it is a psychological threshold".
"The banking crisis is taking a back seat and investors are starting to buy what has been leaked in recent weeks," Hogan said.
Among the stocks that benefited from this bargain hunt, the manufacturer of electric vehicles Rivian (+9.88%), the e-commerce platform Shopify (+5.39%) and the specialist of installment payment on the internet Affirm (+10.88%).
Enthusiasm has even spread to the regional banks, real pariahs of the place just a few days ago.
A little quickly presented as the new weak link in the US banking sector, First Republic was sought after (+5.63%), as well as the Texan Comerica (+4.56%) or the Californian PacWest (+5.06%).
Ironically, SVB shares -- whose trading was allowed to resume over-the-counter on Tuesday (without continuous listing) -- were very popular, jumping 142.50%.
Even with a price more than doubled, they are worth only 97 cents, or less than 1% of their price at the time of their suspension from the listing on March 10.
If it has weathered the banking crisis without a hitch, the technology sector also gained altitude on Wednesday, in the wake of comments from the semiconductor manufacturer Micron (+7.19%).
The Boise, Idaho-based group said it was cautiously optimistic about a rebalancing between supply and demand in the coming months, after a sharp deceleration in orders since the end of 2022.
These forecasts have carried several of its competitors, whether Intel (+7.61%) or Qualcomm (+3.09%).
Beyond that, Amazon (+3.10%), Meta (+2.33%) and graphics card specialist Nvidia (+2.17%) paraded.
Elsewhere on the market, the sports equipment manufacturer Lululemon started in a sprint (+12.72%), pushed in the back by quarterly results better than expected and by forecasts also above analysts' expectations for the whole of its staggered fiscal year (from February to January).
© 2023 AFP