U.S. stocks rally amid earnings, oil recovery

U.S. stocks ended higher Wednesday, as Wall Street digested a slew of quarterly earnings reports from big companies amid rising oil.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 42.67 points, or 0.24 percent, to 18,096.27. The S&P 500 edged up 1.60 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,102.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 7.80 points, or 0.16 percent, to 4,948.13.

After Tuesday's closing bell, Yahoo! Inc. reported adjusted profit of 8 cents per share for the first quarter of 2016, generally in line with market estimates.

However, much of the attention from investors is focusing on the ongoing sale process for Yahoo's core Internet business. The company's shares soared 4.16 percent to 37.84 U.S. dollars apiece Wednesday.

Shares of Intel rose 1.27 percent to 32.00 dollars apiece Wednesday after the tech giant posted quarterly earnings above market expectations and revenues on par with forecasts.

Shares of Coca-Cola tumbled 4.79 percent to 44.37 dollars apiece Wednesday after the release of the world's biggest beverage maker's lackluster quarterly results.

The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the first quarter of 2016 are expected to decrease 7.5 percent year on year, while the revenue is forecast to decline 1.3 percent.

A strong rebound in oil prices provided some upward jolts to the stock market. Oil prices surged Wednesday, with both U.S. oil and Brent crude jumping nearly 4 percent, as a government report showed U.S. crude output continued to contract.

On the economic front, U.S. total existing-home sales rose 5.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.33 million units in March from a downwardly revised 5.07 million in February, the National Association of Realtors said. Endit