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At the closing bell in New York the Dow Jones settled up 212 points at 17584 while the Nasdaq rose 57 points to end at 4650 and the S&P 500 gained 23 points to finish at 2026.
On the economic front ADP reported that the U.S. private sector added 241000 jobs in December less than the 250000 expected.
The news leads up to Friday's government employment report for December which is anticipated to show a total of 240000 nonfarm payrolls and an unemployment rate of 5.7%.
The Government reported that the U.S. trade deficit fell 7.7% in November to US$39 billion on lower oil prices and crude imports. Economists were expecting a deficit of US$42 billion.
Gains were added after minutes from the Fed's last policy meeting signalled the central bank is on course for the first interest rate increase since 2006.
Fed officials said they don't need to see inflation pick up before hiking rates according to minutes from the December meeting as lower energy prices and the stronger dollar are likely to keep inflation below the Fed's 2% target for some time.
Meanwhile eurozone's inflation rate fell into negative territory in December for the first time since 2009 adding more pressure on the ECB to launch a Fed-style bond buying program.
Consumer prices contracted by 0.2% year-over-year in December with the euro sliding to a fresh nine-year low prior to the release of the figures.
European markets finished higher yesterday led by shares in London. Asian markets also closed in the green.
Commodities
WTI for February delivery increased 72 cents to settle at US$48.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold for February delivery fell 0.7% to US$1210.70 an ounce.
Silver futures for March delivery declined 0.6% to close at US$16.544 an ounce on the Comex. The price jumped 6.7 percent in the previous three sessions.
Platinum futures for April delivery fell less than 0.1% to US$1220.90 an ounce. Palladium futures for March delivery declined 1% to US$792.45 an ounce the biggest drop since 16th December 2014.
Wall Street round-up
In corporate activity J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) said same store sales rose 3.7% in November and December with shares rising over 20%.
Monsanto (NYSE:MON) also climbed 1.3% after the company reported better than expected earnings and sales for its fiscal first quarter.
Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) fell 2.5% after the chipmaker released weak sales guidance late Tuesday. Earnings in its fiscal first quarter topped estimates however while revenue fell short.
In other news audio equipment maker Monster has sued Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) Beats Electronics its co-founders and smartphone maker HTC over alleged fraud and deceit in the way Beats acquired control of the rights to "Beats by Dr. Dre" headphones. Apple acquired Beats for US$3.2 billion last year.
Keurig Green Mountain (NASDAQ:GMCR) has signed a deal to make Dr Pepper SnApple's(NYSE:DPS) sodas in Keurig's planned cold drink machine. The device is expected to come to market in September. Shares of Keurig climbed over 4.5% Wednesday.
(NYSE:RDS.A) has agreed to pay US$83.4 million in a settlement for two oil spills in Nigeria which occurred in 2008.
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