US close: Rising oil prices drive market up

US stocks closed higher on Thursday after a third straight day of oil price gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.79%, the Nasdaq increased 0.86% and the S&P 500 gained 0.55%.

Oil prices moved edged closer to $35 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate up 4.58% to $33.78 per barrel and Brent crude rising 4.20% to $34.49 at 2204 GMT.

Earlier Interfax reported Russian energy minister Alexander Novak had said that Saudi Arabia had been suggesting output cuts of 5% at previous OPEC meetings, with the size of the reductions currently under discussion.

However, Bloomberg reported that four delegates to OPEC had told the newswire they had not heard yet of any plans for talks.

In economic data, the Commerce Department revealed US durable orders dropped 5.1% last month, more than the 0.7% that was forecast and compared to the 0.5% decrease in November.

US jobless claims fell by 16,000 to 278,000 in the week ending 23 January from an upwardly-revised 294,000 the previous week, the Labor Department revealed.

Economists had been expecting claims to come in at 282,000. US pending home sales nudged up just a touch in December, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.

The NAR’s monthly index rose just 0.1% to 106.8 in December from a downwardly-revised 106.7 the previous month, as a large increase in the Northeast outpaced declines in the other three major regions.

This fell well short of economists’ expectations for a 0.8% increase.

The mixed data comes after the Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, saying it would continue to monitor global economic and financial developments.

“While it did claim it is monitoring global economic and financial developments, it didn’t indicate that recent events have necessarily changed their intentions,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

In company news, Amazon reported its largest quarterly profit ever, but its results were below analyst expectations which sent the shares plummeting in afterhours trading, losing gains made throughout the day.

Facebook’s fourth quarter revenues rose 52% to $5.84bn, up from $3.85 billion in the same period a year earlier.

And eBay shares plunged over 12% after reporting $2.32bn in sales in the fourth quarter after the close of Wednesday, down $1m from a year before and a fourth straight quarterly drop.

S&P 500 - Risers
Under Armour Inc. Class A (UA) $84.07 +22.59%
Facebook Inc. (FB) $109.11 +15.52%
Genworth Financial Inc. (GNW) $2.62 +15.42%
Hess Corp. (HES) $40.34 +9.47%
Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) $26.79 +9.39%
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $635.35 +8.91%
Paypal Holdings Inc (PYPL) $34.24 +8.39%
Helmerich & Payne Inc. (HP) $49.48 +7.40%
Rowan Companies plc (RDC) $12.40 +7.36%
Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) $69.51 +6.04%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Alliance Data Systems Corp. (ADS) $199.00 -19.37%
United Rentals Inc. (URI) $45.58 -18.37%
Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) $22.46 -15.37%
Harman International Industries Inc. (HAR) $69.01 -13.45%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $23.13 -12.45%
Abbott Laboratories (ABT) $36.71 -9.29%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $43.59 -8.29%
Sl Green Realty Corp. (SLG) $93.42 -8.11%
Discover Financial Services (DFS) $44.83 -7.98%
Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) $76.81 -6.05%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $61.08 +4.73%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $85.92 +3.16%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $61.20 +2.72%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $76.99 +2.26%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $157.06 +2.17%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $52.06 +1.63%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $79.82 +1.29%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $122.38 +1.25%
Boeing Co. (BA) $118.01 +1.23%
3M Co. (MMM) $147.32 +1.22%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
American Express Co. (AXP) $52.88 -3.01%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $49.20 -2.32%
Visa Inc. (V) $69.33 -2.23%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $23.10 -1.39%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $30.20 -1.05%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $111.38 -0.85%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $93.53 -0.84%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $49.01 -0.04%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Facebook Inc. (FB) $109.11 +15.52%
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $635.35 +8.91%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $45.69 +4.63%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $67.13 +4.55%
Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG) $730.96 +4.42%
Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL) $748.30 +4.28%
Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS) $64.79 +4.26%
O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $256.34 +4.03%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $68.51 +3.96%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $94.41 +3.58%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $23.13 -12.45%
Incyte Corp. (INCY) $67.81 -9.57%
Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN) $73.38 -8.44%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $43.59 -8.29%
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. - Ordinary Shares (NCLH) $42.46 -6.12%
Endo International Plc (ENDP) $54.95 -5.37%
Illumina Inc. (ILMN) $154.25 -5.03%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $97.21 -4.98%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $9.89 -4.86%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $415.11 -4.39%