Wall Street is rallying today, led by strong first-quarter results from JPMorgan, Coca-Cola and Intel that all topped projections. This is a wild reversal from last weeks earnings reports, giving the market a 150+ bps increase in afternoon trading.

The battered financial sector advanced after JPMorgan reported profit fell 50% because of tight credit markets, but still beat analysts' expectations. The nation's third-biggest bank, which is in the process of acquiring ailing Bear Stearns Cos., reported $2.6 billion of write-downs tied to its loan portfolio.

"You have a combination of JPMorgan and all these other strong earnings out there from a broad range sectors, and that's helping the buying we're seeing," said Todd Salamone, director of trading and vice president of research at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "There's an unwinding of all the negativity that we saw ahead of the earnings season."

In addition to earnings reports, Wall Street weighed sluggish economic reports on inflation and housing that were mostly within expectations. The Federal Reserve will also release its Beige Book assessment of regional economies later in the day.

Broader indexes also gained. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 18.79, or 1.41 percent, to 1,353.22; and the Nasdaq composite index added 44.60, or 1.95 percent, to 2,330.64.

Oil prices -- which crossed $114 for the first time on Tuesday -- rose after a government report showed crude-oil inventories fell unexpectedly last week for the second straight period. Light, sweet crude added 84 cents to $114.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Government data showed that consumer inflation pushed higher last month as increases in energy, food and airline tickets overwhelmed the biggest drop in clothing prices in nearly a decade. The Labor Department reported consumer prices rose 0.3 percent in March after being unchanged in February.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, posted a 0.2 percent rise. Both the overall increase and the rise in core prices were in line with analysts' expectations.

Meanwhile, home construction plummeted during March to its lowest level in 17 years, the government said in a report signaling that the housing sector will continue slumping. Housing starts decreased 11.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted 947,000 annual rate, after falling 0.7 percent in February to 1.075 million, according to the Commerce Department.