U.S. stocks closed moderately higher Wednesday after a late-session surge in financial shares offset the negative effects of a stronger dollar.

Two leading Chinese internet firms Youku and Dangdang stole the show in the tech sector, with their shares soaring in U.S. debuts.

Wall Street opened higher as a compromise on tax cuts between President Barack Obama and the Republicans lit up investors' hope for recovery.

But gains on major indices quickly weakens as the dollar rose against most major currencies, exerting downward pressures to gold, silver and crude oil and dragging basic materials and energy sectors down further.

Gains remained sluggish until a surge in the financials lifted market sentiments in late session. The financial sector gained by 0.96 percent at the closing, with Bank of America up 3.72 percent and Lincoln National Corp. up 7.50 percent, the biggest winners among financial institutions.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 13.32 points, or 0.12 percent, to 11,372.48. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 4.53 points, or 0.37 percent, to 1,228.28 and the Nasdaq jumped 10.67 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,609.16.

A bright spot of the day was that China's Youku and Dangdang issued their initial public offerings (IPO), feeding great U.S. demand.

Dangdang, the No. 1 business-to-consumer brand in China, which is also known as "China' s Amazon", made a strong U.S. debut Wednesday. Its stocks surged 86.94 percent to finish 29.91 dollars and continued to climb higher in after hours.

Through this IPO, Dangdang raised more than 200 million dollars in proceeds, which was expected to provide a boost for the online retailer.

Even more astonishing, Youku.com, China' s largest online video company, soared 161 percent to 33.44 dollars per share on Wednesday, the biggest first-day advance U.S. investors have ever seen since another Chinese internet search engine company, Baidu, spiked 354 percent in August 2005.

The warm welcome to the two companies once again reflected Wall Street' s enthusiasm to China' s booming internet industry.

Prior to Youku' s debut, ChinaCache International Holdings Ltd., a Beijing-based provider of content for business websites, had the biggest first-day rally on U.S. exchanges in three years when it listed in Nasdaq, jumping 95 percent on Oct. 1.

As for the week, three more Chinese IPOs are already scheduled, including Bona Film Group Ltd., the nation' s largest privately owned film distributor, Lentuo International Inc. and Sky-mobi Ltd.