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U.S. stocks posted modest gains Wednesday after volatile trading, as investors were eagerly awaiting the European Central Bank's (ECB) policy meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 39.05 points, or 0. 22 percent, to 17,554.28. The S&P 500 added 9.57 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,032.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 12.57 points, or 0.27 percent, to 4,667.42.
The ECB will hold its first governing council meeting of 2015 on Thursday and is widely expected to announce a quantitative easing program to fight the threat of deflation in the single- currency bloc. Investors were reluctant to make big moves ahead of the meeting.
Several media outlets quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that the ECB is discussing a proposal for a quantitative easing program of about 50 billion euros per month that would last at least one year.
On the economic front, led by solid gains in single-family housing production, U.S. housing starts jumped 4.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.089 million units in December, the U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday.
"There was no indication in the regional data that falling oil prices have had an impact on housing starts or permits despite anecdotal reports of caution from big homebuilders, but we will keep an eye on this possibility going forward," said Sophia Kearney-Lederman, an economic analyst at FTN Financial, in a note.
In corporate news, Netflix shares soared 17.34 percent to close at 409.28 U.S. dollars a share Wednesday, a day after the U.S. online video streaming service provider said it added 4.33 million net subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to 4.07 million in the previous year period, beating market expectations.
Shares of the International Business Machines Corp. led the declines on the Dow, slipping 3.10 percent to 152.09 dollars a share, after the company reported late Tuesday a 12-percent decline in fourth-quarter revenue that trailed analysts' forecast.
After the closing bell, global commerce platform and payments leader eBay said its adjusted earnings rose to 0.90 dollar per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2014 from 0.81 dollar per share a year ago, driven by enabled commerce volume growth of 21 percent, topping market consensus.
Looking forward to 2015, eBay said it plans to reduce the workforce globally in the first quarter by cutting approximately 2, 400 positions, representing about 7 percent of its total workforce across eBay Marketplaces, PayPal, and eBay Enterprise, in an effort to simplify organizational structures.
Latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that per-share earnings of S&P 500 companies are expected to grow 3.6 percent year on year, while revenue growth is forecast to increase 0.9 percent.
On the previous day, U.S. stocks managed to end slightly higher after the International Monetary Fund cut its global economic forecast for the next two years.
The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, fell 5.23 percent to end at 18.85 Wednesday.
In other markets, oil prices rebounded Wednesday as traders bought the dip after prior day's heavy sell-off.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery gained 1.31 dollars to settle at 47.78 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for March delivery moved up 1.04 dollars to close at 49.03 dollars a barrel.
The U.S. dollar fell Wednesday against the euro to one-week low before paring losses as investors were awaiting the closely- watched ECB meeting scheduled for Thursday.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1591 dollars from 1.1549 dollars in the previous session, while the greenback bought 117.94 Japanese yen, lower than 118.81 yen of the previous session.
Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell slightly Wednesday, breaking a seven-session winning streak ahead of a massive bond-buying program by the European Central Bank.
The most active gold contract for February delivery fell 0.5 dollar, or 0.04 percent, to settle at 1,293.70 dollars per ounce.
