The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX:DJI) on Monday crossed the 18,000 threshold for the first time in almost nine months, as stocks ripped higher despite sliding oil prices and dour earnings reports from major banks.
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Reflecting the strength in the energy sector, the NYSE Arca Oil & Gas Index surged up by 1.7 percent, while the Philadelphia Oil Service Index climbed by 1.3 percent.
During the session, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.6 per cent to end the day at 18,004.16 points and the SP 500 gained 0.65 per cent to 2,094.34.
OIL IMPACT: Chesapeake Energy slid 19 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $5.85 as the price of crude declined.
Market watchers are looking ahead this week to a meeting of the European Central Bank and a heavy schedule of corporate earnings that began Monday with Morgan Stanley and PepsiCo. The diagnostic test maker’s shares were trading at US$133.81 after the company’s preliminary results fell short of expectations.
US stocks closed slightly lower on Friday after a report that Apple would continue its reduced production of iPhones.
Europe’s main stock indexes had opened sharply lower after crude prices tanked following the failure of oil-producing nations to agree to a production freeze during a meeting in Doha, Qatar.
The Nasdaq Composite was down 6.57 points, or 0.13 percent, at 4,953.45.
Earnings of SP 500 companies are seen falling 7.7 per cent on average, with the energy sector weighing heavily, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Hasbro jumped 5.8 percent after reporting better results than analysts were expecting. The stock was the biggest positive influence on the S&P 500.
Brazil’s Bovespa index fell 0.6 per cent as a vote to impeach President Dilma Rousseff looked set to force her from office after 13 years of leftist Workers’ Party rule. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 3.4 percent as a rising yen and quake-related production halts added to investor worries.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost five points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,074.
OVERSEAS: Germany’s DAX rose 0.3 percent, while the CAC-40 in France edged up 0.4 percent. South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.3%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.4%.
A recent rebound in oil and signs that the U.S. economy is slowly improving have helped stocks rally from a steep selloff earlier this year that had pushed the SP 500 down as much as 10.5 per cent.
It’s up 2.3 percent at 10,350. On the Nasdaq, 1,838 issues rose and 893 fell.
The dollar was last down 0.4% against the yen at ¥108.3970, as investors shed risk and Japanese authorities faced pressure not to intervene to weaken the currency.
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The market had started lower on Monday as the price of oil sank, but turned higher in morning trading and stayed higher for the rest of the day.
