US stocks rose sharply Friday, ending a two-day slide with a rally led by Apple and other tech stocks and extending to most industrial sectors.

At the closing bell, the tech-rich Nasdaq stood with the biggest gains, rising 63.97 points (1.29 percent) to 4,479.06.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 179.63 (1.01 percent) at 18,020.15, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 22.49 (1.08 percent) to 2,108.00. All but four companies in the 30-stock Dow finished higher.

"We got a little bit oversold yesterday," said Mace Blicksilver, director of Marblehead Asset Management.

Apple, which had lost 5.7 percent in the prior three sessions, shot up 3.0 percent.

Biotech stocks, another underperformer this week, surged after Gilead Sciences (+4.5 percent) reported that first-quarter net income nearly doubled to $4.3 billion.

Amgen advanced 1.5 percent, Biogen rose 3.4 percent and Celgene added 2.3 percent.