Dow up 113 after Fed signals gradual hikes

Wall Street  jumpstarted a stalled market rally Wednesday as investors reacted to a rebound in oil prices and the minutes of the Federal Reserve's meeting last month.

Stocks were mixed and sluggish in early trading but sprang higher, with the Nasdaq composite ending up 1.6%, the Dow Jones industrial average 0.6% higher and the S&P 500 up 1.1%.

The major benchmarks were cruising higher before the 2 p.m. ET release of the Fed minutes, faltered a bit and then resumed their climb up to the 4 p.m. ET close.

Fed: Global economy, markets posed big risks

At their March meeting, Fed officials signaled more gradual rate hikes. Financial markets remain vulnerable despite a rebound, and a rise in inflation could be reversed, the policymaker reasoned.

The Dow is riding a two-session losing streak after closing at its highest level of 2016 on Friday. On Tuesday, the Dow tumbled nearly 134 points, which was the blue chip stock gauge's first triple-digit point drop since March 8 and its biggest one-day point loss since Feb. 23, the day the Saudi Arabian oil minister said a oil output cut was "not gonna happen."

Optimism rose Wednesday that some kind of production reduction might get done later this month at a key OPEC meeting after a Kuwait official expressed confidence that something could get done. U.S.-produced crude, which has been under pressure again in recent days after a massive rally off of its low, was up about a buck, or nearly 3% to $36.90 a barrel.

Street to scour Fed minutes for rate clues

Stocks, which had been on a tear since the low on Feb. 11, are still being dogged by global growth fears and worries about profit weakness for companies in the U.S. and other parts of the world as the first-quarter earnings reporting season nears.

Heading into the week, analysts were forecasting first-quarter profit for the S&P 500 to contract 6.9%, which would mark the third straight quarter in which profits have come in negative. Earnings growth is not expected to resume until the third-quarter of this year.

The global market sell-off seems to have cooled, as shares in Asia and Europe were mixed, but skewed to the upside Wednesday. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 edged down 0.1%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Hong rose 0.2% and shares of mainland China's Shanghai composite dipped 0.1%.

In Europe, the broad Stoxx Europe 600 was 0.3% higher and the CAC 40 in France was up 0.3%. Germany's DAX was trading down 0.2%.

Contributing: Paul Davidson.