NEW YORK — Wall Street snapped back from a steep sell-off with a rebound yesterday in the same financial stocks that were pummeled Tuesday. Upbeat comments from banks, stronger-than-expected results from IBM Corp. and hopes that Washington will offer more help to the economy powered a rally that recovered most of the previous session's losses.

It's too early to say whether Tuesday's plunge and yesterday's surge were overdone, said John Lynch, chief market analyst at Evergreen Investments in Charlotte, N.C. He contends the volatility will continue until investors gain more confidence. He predicts stocks will test the weakest levels of late November, when the Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at an 11-year low.