US close: Stocks end higher despite oil price decline; ADT rockets
US stocks ended in the black on Tuesday as bright spots on the corporate front helped to offset a drop in oil prices and some uninspiring data releases.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 1.4%, the Nasdaq increased 2.3% and the S&P 500 closed 1.7% firmer.
Oil prices reversed an earlier surge higher as market participants were left disappointed that Saudia Arabia, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela agreed only to freeze oil output at January levels, rather than cut it.
“Expectations were running pretty high into the oil producer meeting this morning, and with only a production freeze (which freezes record high output levels and doesn’t include Iran) agreed, the reaction was always going to be ugly. Inevitably the market had front-run the news, with those who had pushed the price up in the overnight session unwinding positions rapidly,” said IG.
By the time of the US close, West Texas Intermediate was down 1.1% at $29.12 per barrel and Brent crude was 3.3% weaker at $32.28.
Still, corporate news flow was cheerier.
ADT Corp. rocketed after agreeing to be acquired by private-equity outfit Apollo Global Management for about $6.93bn.
Pfizer gained after saying it reached an agreement in principle to pay $784.6m to settle a long-running US government investigation over claims its Wyeth unit overcharged government Medicaid health programmes for the heartburn drug Protonix.
Tech giant Apple advanced after announcing that it would issue up to $12bn in bonds to fund share buybacks and dividends.
Hormel Foods rallied after raising its guidance and reporting a jump in first quarter profit.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were on the front foot after analysts at JP Morgan upgraded the former from ‘neutral’ to ‘overweight’ and the latter from ‘underweight’ to ‘overweight’.
In economic data, the New York Federal Reserve revealed business conditions in the region remained in negative territory.
The Empire State manufacturing index for February rose to -16.6 from -19.4 in January, versus economists' expectations for a reading of -10.0.
Elsewhere, figures showed activity in the US housing market cooled slightly in February, although an uptrend was expected to resume over the rest of the year.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index retreated from a reading of 61 points for January to 58 in February.
That was slightly below the 61 point reading economists had pencilled in.
However, commenting on the data NAHB, chief economist David Crowe said: “Historically low mortgage rates, steady job gains, improved household formations and significant pent up demand all point to a gradual upward trend for housing in the year ahead.”
An index of single-family sales retreated from 68 points to 65 and another linked to traffic of prospective buyers fell from 44 points to 39.
A gauge of the number of single family home sales expected over the coming six months edged higher from a reading of 64 points to 65.
The dollar rose 1% against the pound and 0.2% versus the euro, but slipped 0.3% against the yen.
S&P 500 - Risers
Adt Corp (ADT) $39.64 +47.53%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $1.86 +16.98%
Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) $6.37 +15.19%
Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) $15.01 +11.43%
Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) $40.78 +8.60%
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) $29.28 +8.28%
Graham Holdings Co. (GHC) $508.25 +7.97%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $74.65 +7.97%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $10.80 +7.78%
Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL) $44.44 +7.08%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) $8.00 -10.41%
Range Resources Corp. (RRC) $26.04 -5.07%
Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) $24.56 -4.73%
Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) $2.32 -4.53%
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (COG) $19.26 -2.48%
Transocean Ltd. (RIG) $8.66 -2.26%
Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) $21.26 -1.98%
American International Group Inc. (AIG) $52.06 -1.77%
Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) $23.58 -1.75%
Dun & Bradstreet Corp. (DNB) $93.78 -1.75%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Boeing Co. (BA) $112.60 +3.65%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $65.21 +3.26%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $115.15 +2.98%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $25.84 +2.91%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $96.56 +2.73%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $119.43 +2.67%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $57.79 +2.43%
General Electric Co. (GE) $28.86 +2.12%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $149.02 +1.98%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $92.91 +1.93%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $84.81 -0.73%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $65.90 -0.42%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $107.37 -0.11%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Ctrip.Com International Ltd. Ads (CTRP) $40.33 +8.62%
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) $29.28 +8.28%
JD.com, Inc. (JD) $24.99 +8.04%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $10.80 +7.78%
Liberty Global plc Series C (LBTYK) $33.96 +7.64%
Liberty Global plc Series A (LBTYA) $35.27 +7.43%
Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS) $61.44 +6.61%
Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN) $74.26 +5.96%
TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) $63.32 +5.71%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $23.09 +5.48%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Mattel Inc. (MAT) $30.35 -1.33%
Vimpelcom Ltd Ads (VIP) $3.37 -1.17%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $76.55 -0.69%
Facebook Inc. (FB) $101.50 -0.50%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $44.89 -0.07%