NEW YORK — The stock market reclaimed some losses from its biggest dive this year and returned Wednesday to its pattern of steady gains and stable trading. Reassuring reports on productivity and hiring overshadowed worries about the Greek debt crisis.
Stock indexes made solid gains by midmorning after the government said oil refineries were operating at a faster clip than economists had expected. Oil refiners Valero Energy and Tesoro were among the biggest gainers in the Standard & Poor’s 500.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 78.18 points, or 0.6 percent, at 12,837.33. The S&P 500 index gained 9.27, or 0.7 percent, to close at 1,352.63. The Nasdaq composite added 25.37, or 0.9 percent, to close at 2,935.69.
The Dow dived 203.66 points Tuesday, the biggest hitch in a strong rally for stocks this year. Many market-watchers believe that stocks had risen too quickly and were due for a setback. Before Tuesday, the Dow was up more than 6 percent for 2012.
“You wouldn’t expect to get it all back in one day,” said Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds.
The average has gained more than 20 percent since Oct. 3, and the rally has proved resilient. Tuesday marked the eighth time during that stretch that the Dow fell more than 200 points.
Tuesday’s sell-off was triggered by fears that not enough private investors would sign on to exchange their Greek government bonds for replacements with a lower face value and interest rate.
Greece needs the investors to agree so it can secure an international bailout of $171 billion and avoid a default later this month that would rattle the world financial system.
By Wednesday, owners of about half of Greece’s privately held debt had agreed.
European markets and the euro rose slightly. Benchmark indexes finished 0.9 percent higher in France, 0.6 percent higher in Germany and 0.4 percent higher in Britain.
A closely watched private estimate of hiring also exceeded economists’ expectations. Payroll processor ADP said employers added 216,000 jobs last month. The result lifted hopes about the big February jobs report, which comes out Friday.
Webman said the report will signal whether hiring is brisk enough to offset the economic drag of high gas prices.
“There’s a foot race between gas bills and paychecks,” he said. “If we continue to print new paychecks at the rate we’ve been adding them, that mitigates a lot of the damage of higher gasoline prices.”
