Stocks helped by decline in dollar

Stocks staged a rapid comeback in late-afternoon trading to close solidly higher Wednesday, helped by a surge in oil prices and a decline in the U.S. dollar.

Chipotle Mexican Grill fell 3% after it said a federal investigation into its E. coli outbreak had widened, and Yahoo sank 4.7% after the troubled Internet company announced layoffs and plans to sell businesses.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 183.12 points, or 1.1%, to 16,336.66. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 9.50 points, or 0.5%, to 1,912.53. The Nasdaq composite fell 12.71 points, or 0.3%, to 4,504.24.

It was a day of major swings. The Dow had been down nearly 200 points earlier. Major industries that were deep in the red, such as energy and financials, recovered most or all of the ground they’d lost. Energy stocks ended up nearly 4%.

The gains can be largely attributed to a decline in the value of the dollar against other major currencies. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the dollar against other major currencies, fell 1.7%, a large move for the foreign exchange market. Nearly all that decline happened in the last two hours of trading.

Many U.S. companies have been complaining that the appreciation of the dollar was eroding their earnings by making American . exports less profitable.

A weaker dollar also tends to send commodity prices higher. That was a relief to investors as well, since a plunge in the price of crude oil has been decimating profits at energy companies.

The price of U.S. crude oil jumped $2.40, or 8%, to close at $32.28 a barrel, which helped lift energy stocks.

Investors remain wary. They are still putting money into traditional havens: stocks that pay high dividends, U.S. government bonds and precious metals.

The Dow Jones utility index, a basket of 15 utility companies, rose 1.3%. It is up more than 8% this year. Utilities and other firms that pay big dividends are popular at times of uncertainty.

Some traders are going a step further. “I’ve been telling clients to be in all cash,” said Ian Winer, co-head of equities trading at Wedbush Securities. “There’s too much credit risk out there, S&P 500 earnings could be down this year and it seems an increasing possibility that the U.S. could be in a recession in 2017.”

The euro rose against the dollar to $1.1101, and the dollar fell against the Japanese yen to 117.85 yen.

Heating oil jumped 6.8 cents to $1.0786 a gallon, wholesale gasoline rose 1.3 cents to $1.014 a gallon and natural gas rose 1.3 cents to $2.038 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold rose 1.2% to $1,141.30 an ounce. Silver climbed 3% to $14.73 an ounce. Copper rose 2% to $2.095 a pound.