Mumbai, Feb. 26 -- The Nasdaq jumped 288.40 points (1.3%) to 23,152.08, the S&P 500 climbed 56.06 points (0.8%) to 6,946.13 and the Dow rose 307.65 points (0.6%) to 49,482.15.

Nvidia jumped by 1.4% ahead of the release of its fourth quarter financial results after the close of today's trading. Tech giant IBM Corp. (IBM) also surged by 3.6%, continuing to regain ground following a nosedive on Monday after UBS upgraded its rating on the company's stock to Neutral from Sell. Oracle (ORCL) also shot up by 1.2% after Oppenheimer upgraded its rating on the software giant's stock to Outperform from Perform.

Software stocks turned in some of the market's best performances, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index spiking by 3.1%. The index contin...