"The angst out there in the market was the Fed was going to come out swinging. There was none of that in the statement," said John Canally, investment strategist and economist at LPL Financial in Boston.

"This might be read as a little less hawkish than the market might have feared."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was up 86.81 points, or 0.42 percent, to 20,924.18, the S&P 500 <.SPX> had gained 15.43 points, or 0.65 percent, to 2,380.88 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 33.70 points, or 0.58 percent, to 5,890.51.

U.S. retail sales recorded their smallest gain in six months in February, setting U.S. gross domestic product on track to grow at a 0.8 percent annualised pace in the first quarter according to the Atlanta Fed's latest forecast.

Energy sector stocks boosted the S&P 500 as oil prices rose for the first time in more than a week on a surprise drawdown in U.S. crude inventories. U.S. crude gained 1.9 percent to $48.63 per barrel and Brent added 1.3 percent to $51.60.

Exxon shares rose 0.7 percent and Chevron added 0.6 percent.

Apple was up 1.0 percent at $140.31 after RBC raised its price target on the stock.

Twitter was down 2.9 percent at $14.88 after a number of prominent accounts on the microblogging website were hacked.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 5.45-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.44-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 48 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 108 new highs and 38 new lows.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos Additional reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by James Dalgleish)