S&P 500 Leaders & Laggards: Titanium Metals, Sallie Mae

The S&P 500 gained 30.28 points, or 2.27 percent, to 1,364.71.

The index's biggest gainer, Titanium Metals Corp., jumped $1.44, or 9.4 percent, to $16.70.

KLA-Tencor Corp. advanced $3.36, or 8.4 percent, to $43.23. A Citi Investment Research analyst said competition facing the microchip testing equipment maker isn't as bad as investors think.

A government report showed surprisingly low U.S. inventories of petroleum products, and sent oil refiner Tesoro Corp. up $2.01, or 7.7 percent, to $27.99.

SLM Corp., also known as Sallie Mae, lost $1.18, or 6.8 percent, to $16.26, after a Morgan Stanley analyst downgraded shares of the nation's largest student lender ahead of its quarterly report.

Chip maker LSI Corp. declined 33 cents, or 6.2 percent, to $5.04, following a downgrade from Merrill Lynch.

Supermarket chain Safeway Inc. shed $1.38, or 4.9 percent, to close at $26.71, after bottoming at a new 52-week low of $25.75 earlier in the session.