US stocks posted strong gains on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones up more than 500 points after data released on Wednesday showed an improvement in the consumer confidence index.

Stronger than expected earnings reports from Nike NKE and fedex corp FDX also lifted overall market sentiment.

On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan widened its yield cap on its long-term bonds, causing the yen to post its biggest one-day gain against the US dollar in 24 years.

All major sectors of the S&P 500 ended positively, with energy and industrials stocks posting the biggest gains on Wednesday.

The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.48% to close at 11,235.88 on Wednesday amid gains Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and apple inc AAPL. The S&P 500 was up 1.49%, while the Dow Jones was up 1.60% to 33,376.48 in the previous session.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange’s CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fell 6.6% to 20.07 points on Wednesday.

What is the CBOE Volatility Index?

The CBOE Volatility Index, popularly known as the VIX, is a measure of stock market volatility expectations based on call and put options of the S&P 500 index options.