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 U.S. oil prices settled 12.3 percent higher, boosting energy shares
<.SPNY> 2.6 percent. The materials sector jumped 2.9 percent.
Investors also snapped up battered shares of financials. U.S.-listed
shares of Deutsche Bank <DB.N> were up 12 percent at $17.38, while
the S&P financial index rallied 4 percent, its largest daily
percentage gain since November 2011.
"Europe was strong and especially the banks in Europe, and that
appeared to have some positive carryover effect on sentiment towards
banking and other financial stocks here in the U.S.," said John
Carey, portfolio manager at Pioneer Investment Management in Boston,
which has about $220 billion in assets under management.
Also helping boost sentiment, he said, was that U.S. consumer
spending regained some strength in January.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> closed up 313.66 points, or
2 percent, to 15,973.84, the S&P 500 <.SPX> had gained 35.7 points,
or 1.95 percent, to 1,864.78 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> had
added 70.68 points, or 1.66 percent, to 4,337.51.
This week's selloff saw the S&P 500 touch a two-year low on
Thursday, and all three indexes still posted losses for the week:
the Dow fell 1.4 percent, the S&P 500 lost 0.8 percent and the
Nasdaq dropped 0.6 percent.
But the S&P 500 closed at its high for the session ahead of the
three-day U.S. holiday weekend. Such late-day buying suggests
investors may be starting to warm up to stocks again.
Concerns over global and U.S. growth have dragged down shares in
2016. The S&P 500 remains down 8.8 percent since Dec. 31.
"It may be that the market was a little bit oversold, a little bit
too much pessimism, so bargain hunters came in to buy some shares,"
Carey said.
"It's too early to say whether this is the beginning of a more
sustained recovery, but it's encouraging and it shows there is still
interest in stocks despite the rocky times we've experienced so far
this calendar year."
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Aiding financials, shares of JPMorgan <JPM.N> jumped 8.3 percent to
$57.49 after CEO Jamie Dimon bought more than $25 million of the
bank's stock.
Financials have been the weakest-performing sector this year.
Recession fears have compounded concern about their exposure to the
energy sector and expectations that global interest rates are
unlikely to rise quickly.
Wynn Resorts <WYNN.O> rose 15.8 percent to $69.14 after the casino
operator reported strong quarterly profit.
Volume was lighter than in recent sessions. About 8.7 billion shares
changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 9.7 billion daily average
for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2,457 to
628, for a 3.91-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 2,131
issues rose and 670 fell for a 3.18-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 5 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows; the Nasdaq
recorded 9 new highs and 127 new lows.
(additional reporting by Aastha Agnihotri and Abhiram Nandakumar in
Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Nick Zieminski)
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