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 As it has for months, Wall Street followed the lead of global oil
prices in a trend that has left the S&P 500 down 5 percent so far in
2016, following a partial recovery last week.
Monday's stock gains were as broad as they were strong, with all 10
major S&P sectors finishing higher, but investors shell-shocked by
this year's market turbulence remained wary.
"You still have concerns about China and where growth goes there,
and that's why you're still going to have this volatility," said
Kurt Brunner, portfolio manager at Swarthmore Group in Philadelphia.
"We're still going to have considerations about heavily indebted
energy companies going into default."
U.S. crude prices settled up more than 6 percent but still remained
around decade lows, while prices of industrial metals such as copper
and zinc rose as investors worried about potential shortages.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 1.39 percent to end at
16,620.66 points. The S&P 500 gained 1.45 percent to 1,945.5 and the
Nasdaq Composite added 1.47 percent to 4,570.61.
The S&P energy sector rose 2.23 percent, boosted by Chevron's 2.68
percent increase. Shares of oilfield services provider Schlumberger
closed up 2.06 percent.
The materials sector rose 1.87 percent. Alcoa and Freeport-McMoRan
were the biggest influences, both surging over 13 percent.
Recent turmoil in global markets and macroeconomic uncertainty has
left investors split over whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will
raise interest rates this year.
Among S&P 500 companies, there have been 75 negative EPS
pre-announcements for the first quarter, compared to 16 positive
pre-announcements, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
After the bell, Fitbit dropped 15 percent after the fitness tracker
maker's first-quarter profit forecast badly missed analysts'
expectations..
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UnitedHealth, Anthem, Humana, Aetna and other insurers gained after
the U.S. government proposed raising payments to health insurers who
offer Medicare Advantage health benefits to elderly and disabled
Americans.
UnitedHealth was up 3.05 percent, providing a major boost to the
Dow.
Shares of Aerospace component suppliers Honeywell International Inc
fell 1.95 percent and United Technologies Corp, a Dow component,
rallied 4.69 percent after it was reported the two have held merger
talks.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,389 to 676.
On the Nasdaq, 1,974 issues rose and 829 fell.
The S&P 500 index showed 19 new 52-week highs and one new low, while
the Nasdaq recorded 38 new highs and 35 new lows.
About 7.1 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the
roughly 9.1 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days,
according to Thomson Reuters data.
(Additional reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by
Nick Zieminski and Meredith Mazzilli)
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