TORONTO -- Investors in North America appear to have come to terms with Britain's vote to leave the European Union as markets soared for a second consecutive day Wednesday.

At mid-afternoon, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was up 197.01 points at 14,039.70 and now has recovered almost 80 per cent of the 440 points it lost in the two-day rout that followed the referendum.

The Canadian dollar was also higher for a second day, up a quarter of a U.S. cent at 76.97 cents US. It was still down from the 78.30 cent US level it was at before spooked traders began fleeing to the presumed safe haven of the U.S. dollar after last Thursday's vote.

In commodities, oil continued its recovery since the so-called Brexit vote, with the August contract for benchmark North American crude adding $1.64 to US$49.49 a barrel.

August natural gas shed three cents to US$2.86 per mmBtu, while August gold bullion rose $9 to US$1,326.90 a troy ounce and September copper rose 1.05 cents to US$2.186 a pound.

New York indexes also added to Tuesday's gains, helped by positive news on consumer spending and a big acquisition in the banking industry.

The Dow Jones industrials was up 243.70 points at 17,653.42, with the widely watched index now having clawed back some 59 per cent of the combined 870 points it lost on Friday and Monday. The broader S&P 500 added 30.98 points to 2,067.07 and the Nasdaq composite rose 83.31 points to 4,775.18.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said U.S. consumer spending increased 0.4 per cent in May on top of a 1.1 per cent surge in April. The data underscore that consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 per cent of U.S. economic activity, picked up in the spring after getting off to a slow start in 2016.

In corporate news, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TSX:CM) agreed to buy U.S. bank holding company PrivateBancorp (Nasdaq:PVTB) for US$47 per share in cash and stock or about US$3.73 billion.

News of the deal sent PrivateBancorp shares up $8.44 or 23.5 per cent to US$44.38, while CIBC slumped $2.13 or 2.12 per cent to $98.35 in Toronto.

Overseas, Britain's benchmark FTSE 100 index was up 3.58 per cent, while Germany's DAX rose 1.75 per cent and France's CAC 40 gained 2.6 per cent.

-- With files from The Associated Press