After a three-session selloff, the bulls were back in charge Wednesday, taking advantage of the sparse trading activity to re-inflate most stocks and commodities.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 38 points to 12,395, the Nasdaq rose 15 points to 2761 and the S&P 500 added 4 points to 1320.

And it didn’t stop there: oil rebounded to climb above $101 a barrel — its highest level in a week — while gold and silver both finished higher (the latter, significantly so).

Not that there was a whole lot of specific news to account for Wednesday’s snapback, as modest as it was — with trading volume down and volatility up, what did you expect — four straight selloff days?

No, speculators had sat back long enough, and on Wednesday they clearly felt emboldened to put a few more chips on the table — note the 1.5% boost in the Russell 2000 Index, as traders went back to scavenging for small-cap plays to capture some of the rally in precious metals and oil.

Not that the boost was limited to small stocks in the sector — National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV) gained 5.7%.

Airlines, meanwhile, retreated to their lowest level in tktkt as investors weren’t liking the signs of a return to higher oil prices. Delta (NYSE:DAL) fell 5.4%, and US Airways (NYSE:LCC) dropped 4.8%.

Beyond trying to glean specific winners and losers from a market headed toward a three-day holiday weekend, however, is the precipice on which stocks seem to be hanging after drifting lower for more than three weeks with a key sector like financials hitting five-month lows.

As economist David Rosenberg noted on Tuesday, the charts are showing the 10-year Treasury note, major commodities and dollar have all crossed or are hugging significant moving-average lines — all of this amid a stock market that hasn’t really moved since Feb. 7.

A low-volume move up on Wednesday hasn’t changed this possible pivot point for equities.