S&P 500 has best day since April

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index jumped Wednesday, posting its biggest single-day gain since April 24, as stocks bounced back from Tuesday’s losses.

Banks and other financial firms led the rally as investors bet on interest rates climbing further. Banks can make more money on lending when rates move up.

Technology companies were among the big gainers, recouping some recent losses. Energy stocks rose as the price of crude oil climbed for a fifth straight day. Utilities and real estate companies were the only laggards.

“Across the board, sector strength is very, very strong,” said Marc Chaikin, chief executive of Chaikin Analytics. “Whoever wanted to sell into the holiday weekend basically did it yesterday, and we probably have a positive bias going into the four-day weekend.”

Bond prices fell. The 10year Treasury yield rose to 2.22% from 2.21%.

Traders bid up shares in financial-sector companies amid heightened expectations that interest rates could be headed higher.

Bank of America shares climbed 2.6% to $23.88. Prudential Financial rose 2.5% to $107.26. Wells Fargo ticked up 2.2% to $54.33.

Investors also bid up companies that reported improved quarterly results.

Los Angeles home builder KB Home leaped 5.4% to $24.06. Irvine wireless communications firm CalAmp jumped 6.2% to $20.44. General Mills, the maker of Cheerios cereal and other packaged foods, advanced 1.6% to $56.42.

News of corporate deals also helped lift the market.

Staples climbed 8.5% to $9.94 after the Wall Street Journal reported that the office supplies retailer agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners. The stock was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500.

Spectranetics surged 26.2% to $38.35 after Dutch electronics and healthcare technology firm Philips said it agreed to buy the medical device company for $38.50 a share, or $2.2 billion.

FedEx shares temporarily halted trading before the package delivery giant disclosed that an information system virus affected its TNT Express subsidiary’s global operations. FedEx’s stock rose 1.3% to $217.15.

Oil and natural gas futures climbed. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.1% to $44.74 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.4% to $47.31 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline rose 2 cents to $1.48 a gallon. Heating oil rose 2 cents to $1.43 a gallon. Natural gas rose 3 cents to $3.07 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold rose $2.20 to settle at $1,249.10 an ounce. Silver rose 14 cents to $16.73 an ounce. Copper rose 1 cent to $2.66 a pound.

The dollar rose to 112.28 yen from 112.15 yen. The euro rose to $1.1382 from $1.1347.