US stocks rallied Wednesday, rising for three sessions in a row, as the Federal Reserve's Beige Book reassured investors by showing that the world's largest economy has been recovering in recent weeks from the abnormally cold wintry weather.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 162.29 points, or 1.00 percent, to 16,424.85. The S&P 500 climbed 19.33 points, or 1.05 percent, to 1,862.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged 52. 06 points, or 1.29 percent, to 4,086.23.

The three major indices initially moved higher at opening despite disappointing quarterly results from Bank of America Corporation, which reported before Wednesday's opening bell a net loss of 276 million US dollars for the first quarter of 2014, compared to net income of 1.5 billion dollars in the year-ago period.

Shrugging off the result, the market went up and continued to surge in the afternoon trading session following the release of the Beige Book which said that economic activity increased in most regions of the United States since the previous report on March 5.

In a speech delivered at the Economic Club of New York Wednesday afternoon, Fed Chair Janet Yellen, in referring to an extremely slowing recovery in the labor market, reaffirmed the US central bank's commitment to systematically respond to unforeseen developments in order to promote a return to maximum employment in a context of price stability, which also boosted market sentiment.

Shortly after the closing bell, Google missed market expectations on both its revenues and earnings in the first quarter. IBM's first-quarter earnings matched market consensus, but its revenues fell short of analysts' estimates.

Intel and Yahoo posted better-then-expected earnings late Tuesday.

On the economic front, US privately owned housing starts rose 2.8 percent in March, while building permits fell 2.4 percent, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Both readings trailed analysts ' expectations.

Meanwhile, US industrial production increased 0.7 percent in March after having advanced 1.2 percent in February, exceeding economists' forecast, the Fed said Wednesday.