NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks followed Europe higher on Thursday as investors ventured into risky bets again with some encouragement from earnings and the dollar rose against the euro after remarks from Europe's Central Bank chief committed to stimulus withdrawal despite market volatility and worries about global growth.
Oil prices regained ground as stocks rebounded and as Saudi Arabia's energy minister signalled major producers may need to intervene in crude markets to support prices.
The greenback rose against the euro. The ECB's Mario Draghi reaffirmed that its 2.6-trillion euro ($2.97 trillion) asset purchase program will end this year and interest rates could rise after next summer even though the economic outlook has darkened and political turmoil looms in Italy.
While equity investors were reassured by positive earnings and stronger technology stocks, they also voiced some caution about whether the broader pullback was over.
"The main reason we're up was that yesterday was a big day of selling," said Stephen Massocca, Senior Vice President at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco who also cited strong earnings from companies such as Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> and strong advertising revenues from Twitter Inc <TWTR.N>.
The odds are that the sell-off "took enough wind out for us to set sail again," he said but "it doesn't mean we're going to race right back to the September highs."
Google-parent Alphabet <GOOGL.O> and Amazon.com <AMZN.O> were among the top boosters of the S&P ahead of their results later.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 483.77 points, or 1.97 percent, to 25,067.19, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 63.89 points, or 2.41 percent, to 2,719.99 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 248.35 points, or 3.49 percent, to 7,356.75.
Stocks extended their gains as the session wore on even after the new Federal Reserve vice chair, Richard Clarida, said he'd support "some further" increase in interest rates as the best way to nurse the current U.S. recovery along while guarding against any jump in inflation.
During its trading day, the pan-European STOXX 600 <.STOXX> had darted in and out of positive territory before closing up 0.51 percent while the MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe <.MIWD00000PUS> gained 1.06 percent.
The dollar index <.DXY> rose 0.27 percent, with the euro <EUR=> down 0.28 percent to $1.1359.
Draghi said he was confident the European Commission and Rome would come to a compromise over Italy's budget plans, but the euro reversed earlier gains after he said the monetary union remained fragile.
Currency dealers were also unwinding Swiss franc <CHF=> and Japanese yen <JPY=> safety trades and Italian and Spanish bonds held their ground as Draghi reiterated the European Central Bank's plans to carefully remove its stimulus.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.30 percent versus the greenback at 112.61 per dollar, while Sterling <GBP=> was last trading at $1.282, down 0.47 percent on the day.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> closed 1.19-percent lower, while Japan's Nikkei <.N225> lost 3.72 percent.
Investors were also eyeing mixed U.S. economic data.
New applications for U.S. unemployment aid rose last week, but the number of Americans receiving benefits fell to more than a 45-year low, pointing to tightening labour market conditions.
But new orders for key U.S.-made capital goods fell for a second straight month in September and the goods trade deficit increased further amid rising imports, suggesting economic growth moderated in the third quarter.
Benchmark 10-year Treasuries <US10YT=RR> last fell 4/32 in price to yield 3.1393 percent, from 3.124 percent late on Wednesday.
U.S. crude <CLcv1> rose 0.75 percent to $67.32 per barrel and Brent <LCOcv1> was last at $76.93, up 1 percent on the day.
Spot gold <XAU=> dropped 0.4 percent to $1,228.31 an ounce due to the strong dollar and the equities rebound.
(Additional reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru, Kate Duiguid in New York, Marc Jones and Christopher Johnson in London and Swati Patel in Sydney; editing by Larry King and Nick Zieminski)
