U.S. stocks closed

U.S. stocks soared, after erasing earlier gains following the Federal Reserve's policy meeting statement, as banks and energy companies led a rally.

Equities had advanced into the afternoon Fed statement, boosted by Apple Inc. following its better-than-expected results and by energy shares as oil surged the most in eight weeks. A signal that policy makers are still considering an interest-rate increase this year briefly undercut the gains before banks jumped on the prospects for stronger profits.

The economy is still expanding at a "moderate" pace, Fed officials said as they left interest rates unchanged, and they will consider tightening policy at their next meeting in December without making a commitment to act this year. Even with a slower pace of recent job gains, labor market indicators show slack has diminished since early this year, the Federal Open Market Committee said.

The Fed removed a line from September's statement saying that global economic and financial developments "may restrain economic activity somewhat," saying only that the central bank is monitoring the international situation.

Policy makers last month opted to not raise rates after China's slowdown and its August currency devaluation added uncertainty to the global economic picture, sparking turmoil in financial markets. Markets have calmed this month, and a rate cut by China's central bank last week helped the S&P 500 erase a loss for the year.

The main U.S. equity gauge is poised for its best monthly gain in four years after rebounding almost 12 percent from an August low. Energy, raw-material and industrial shares have helped propel the October rally, the same groups that weighed heavily during the benchmark's worst quarter since 2011 amid concern that weakness in China would spread.

Uneven data, including weaker-than-forecast new-home sales and consumer confidence reports this week, have held down expectations for higher borrowing costs this year. After the Fed statement, traders priced in a 54 percent chance of a January rate increase, up from about 43 percent earlier today. The central bank has held the federal funds target rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008.

Investors are also look to quarterly results. PayPal Holdings Inc., Marriott International Inc. and Amgen Inc. are among 44 S&P 500 companies posting earnings today, with analysts projecting profits for index members dropped 6.1 percent in the third quarter. Of those that have released results this season, about 75 percent have exceeded profit projections, while 55 percent missed sales estim