Pharmaceutical, housing, and retail stocks also saw notable strength, contributing to the higher close by the broader markets.
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Stocks powered through a volatile session caused by uncertainty over Greece, closing higher ahead of Thursday’s jobs report.
Three years ago, it wasn’t just Greece that anxious investors.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 43.85 points, or 2.1 percent, to 2,057.64. The Nasdaq composite gained 15 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,002. In Hong Kong, Hang Seng Index was up 0.19%.
In 2012, financial markets were rattled by the possibility that Greeks would elect a left-wing government, default on their debts and drop the euro currency.
Jeff Carbone, a senior partner at Cornerstone Financial Partners, said the real worry isn’t so much Greece, a country with an economy roughly the size of Missouri’s.
The United Kingdom will “prepare for the worst” after Greece became the first developed nation to default on an International Monetary Fund loan, George Osborne said.
Back then, the fear was that a financial crisis would spread from Greece to the rest of Europe “because these economies were very fragile”, Cavanaugh said.
Investors got two encouraging reports on the economy.
MORE JOBS: Despite weaknesses in the USA labor market, overall payrolls grew by 223,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low of 5.3 percent.
“While the absence of strong momentum in economic activity has recently shed some doubt on late-2015 rate hikes, we believe the gradual improvement in the ISM indicator offers a clear indication that September rate hikes remain on the table as growth momentum continues to accelerate”, wrote Gennadiy Goldberg, USA strategist with TD Securities. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said its manufacturing index rose to the highest level this year.
Even the reduced payments risked putting more pressure on banks than they could bear, underscoring the desperate choices facing the six-month-old left-wing government and voters in the referendum.
MERGER NEWS: Health Net rose $5.96 or 9 percent, to $71.02 after Medicaid coverage provider Centene said it will pay about $6.3 billion to buy the company. The combined company plans to use the Chubb name and will have its main offices in Zurich, Switzerland, where Ace is based.
European equities jumped as investors reacted positively to news of Greece’s bid for a new bailout.
However, markets rallied today as it appeared Tsipras was ready to back down and accede to the demands of global creditors. The low rates mean that corporations can borrow cheaply to finance acquisitions.
The USA stocks were also tipped to open higher on Tuesday and indicated that there could be some calmness in Wall Street following the Greek situation.
The price of oil rose for the first time in a week as negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program were extended, potentially delaying a return of Iranian crude to the market.
ENERGY: Benchmark US crude fell 70 cents to $53.77 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.1056 while the dollar rose to 123.17 yen. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged up to 2.35% from 2.33% a day earlier.
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– Wholesale gasoline rose 6 cents to close at $2.090 a gallon. The contract soared $1.14 the previous day to close at $59.47.
