Markets roar back after early declines

An afternoon rally on Wall Street gave the stock market its best day in nearly three weeks Thursday.

By midafternoon the Standard & Poor's 500 index seemed headed for another sell-off like Wednesday's 22-point drop, but the index reversed course and rose the rest of the day. It closed up 0.85 percent at 1,622.56.

The gain broke a two-day losing streak as traders looked ahead to the government's monthly employment report Friday.

Financial markets have turned volatile the past two weeks as traders parse comments from Federal Reserve officials for hints about when the bank will cut back on its support for the economy.

A concern for some investors is the recent rise in long-term interest rates. Those rates will likely climb further when the Fed scales down its monthly purchases of $85 billion in bonds.

"As interest rates come back to more normal levels, it's probably going to cause volatility," said Tim Speiss, chairman of the personal wealth advisers practice at EisnerAmper. "But that should be viewed as healthy."

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 80.03 points to 15,040.62. It had been down as much as 116 points. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.66 percent to 3,424.05.