NEW YORK, New York - The release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's monetary meeting earlier this month surprisingly sparked a late buying surge on Wall Street Wednesday, ironing out a volatile session that saw the major indices move in and out of positive territory.

The minutes revealed the Fed is prepared to hike rates more than expected, a revelation that one would think would dampen buyers enthusiasm and encourage dollar bulls - however the opposite happened.

Buyers mainly targeted technology stocks in the late surge, pushing the Nasdaq Composite up 170.29 points or 1.51 percent to 11,434.74.

The Dow Jones industrials advanced 191.66 points or 0.60 percent to 32,120.28.

The Standard and Poor's 500 added 37.25 points or 0.95 percent to 3,978.73.

The U.S. dollar remained under pressure. The euro rose from earlier lows and was consolidating around 1.0678 towards the New York close Wednesday. The British pound was in demand at 1.2578. The Japanese yen came off earlier highs, but was still well ahead of recent lows, trading at 127.27. The Swiss franc was unchanged at 0.9619.

The Canadian dollar barely moved from 1.2812. The Australian dollar strengthened to 0.7089. The New Zealand dollar rose to 0.6480.

On overseas equity markets, the FTSE 100 in London climbed 0.51 percent. The German Dax rose 0.63 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 added 0.73 percent.In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 retreated 70.34 points or 0.26 percent to 26,677.80.

China's Shanghai Composite strengthened 36.54 points or 1.19 percent to 3,107.46.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 fell 73.66 points or 0.65 percent to 11,173.37.

South Korea's Kospi Composite gained 11.35 points or 0.44 percent to 2,617.22.

in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng added 59.17 points or 0.29 percent to 20,171.21 points.

The Australian All Ordinaries gained 18.50 points or 0.05 percent to 7,391.70.