Dow Jones gains 190 points as tech stocks nudge Wall Street up

March 19 (UPI) -- The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased nearly 190 points as the U.S. stock market rebounded slightly Thursday with the help of big tech stocks.

The Dow closed up 188.27 points, or 2.3 percent, on the day, the S&P 500 increased 0.47 percent and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.3 percent amid volatile trading as global economies seek to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shares of tech giants anchored the boost as Uber shot up 38.26 percent, Facebook rose 4.2 percent, Amazon increased 2.78 percent and Netflix gained 5.25 percent.

Energy stocks also traded well Thursday after falling oil prices contributed to the downturn earlier in the week. Diamondback Energy and Apache rose more than 11 percent each while futures contracts associated with West Texas Intermediate crude rose 23 percent in their largest-ever one-day movement.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the U.S. dollar against other currencies throughout the globe, rose to its highest level since January 2017 rising 1.44 percent.

Thursday's mild movement followed significant losses on Wednesday when the Dow closed down nearly 6 percent and finished below 20,000 for the first time since early 2017.

It also came after the European Central Bank on Wednesday announced a Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program providing $819 billion to purchase securities to help the blocs economy and the U.S. Federal Reserve earlier this month announced plans to inject $1 trillion into the economy.

The gains also came on the first day after the New York Stock Exchange announced it would move to all-electronic trading on Monday after two people tested positive for COVID-19 in an NYSE medical screening.