S&P Jumps; First Close Above 1,300 Since July

The U.S. stock market jumped on Wednesday on better than expected housing confidence data and strong earnings from Goldman Sachs

. A large rally in the semiconductor space also boosted sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 97 points to close at 1,2579. The widely watched blue-chip average traded in a range between 12,453 and 12,582. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF

jumped 1.15% to $130.80. Volume was below average with around 132.7 million SPY shares trading hands versus a 3-month daily average of 209 million. The S&P 500 rose better than 14 points and closed at 1,308. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF

, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, 1.33% to $59.49. The entire tech sector was boosted by a large rally in semiconductor names on Wednesday which was sparked by a bullish earnings report from Linear Technology Corp.

. Crude oil was slightly lower on the day. NYMEX crude futures fell 0.12% to $100.59 while ICE Brent contracts slipped 0.53% to $110.94. The United States Oil Fund ETF

added 0.10% to close at $38.83. Gold continued its near-term rally as COMEX gold futures rose 0.26% to $1,659.90. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF

added 0.69% to close at $161.60 in New York Stock Exchange trading. COMEX silver futures also benefited from increased risk appetite, notching a gain of 1.35% to $30.543. U.S. Treasuries fell as the stock market rose. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

lost 1.25% to $119.92. The yield on the 10-Year Note rose 4.2 basis points to 1.90%. The a lower U.S. Dollar helped propel risk assets on Wednesday. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF

, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, lost 0.79% to $22.49. The closely watched EUR/USD pair is currently trading at 1.2858.