US close: Stocks defy dreary data to mount contrarian comeback

But a spirited revival over the course of the day, helped by the stemming of oil future losses, saw the Dow Jones finish 0.32% higher at 16,485, the S&P 500 up 0.45% at 1,930, Nasdaq rise 0.88% to 4,543.

Helping oil were crude inventory numbers from the Department of Energy that served as a solid counterweight to Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi’s recent observation of there being no prospect of production cuts.

The Energy Information Administration noted that the country's gasoline inventories fell last week, for the first time since November.

Front month WTI futures were up 1.1% at $32.22 late in the day, with Brent crude up 3.5% at $34.43.

Counterbalancing concerns of record high crude inventories, strong demand for gasoline helped lift crude futures, with gasoline demand advancing more than 5% over the past four weeks compared with a year ago.

But crude prices are not expected to rally for long, with Iran continuing to laugh off the idea of an oil production freeze, despite Nigeria adding its name to those countries signed up to the Saudi-Russia pact.

Back on US soil, data on new home sales and the services sector both disappointed.

Sales of new single-family homes fell more than expected in January, with figures from the Commerce Department showing new home sales declined 9.2% from December to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 494,000 from an unrevised 544,000 in December.

This was weaker than economists’ expectations for a rate of 520,000, 5.2% lower than January 2015 and marked the lowest reading since October.

Later, business activity in US services sector was shown to have unexpectedly contracted for the first time for since 2013.

A 'Flash' Purchasing Managers’ Index reading for the services sector showed a fell to 49.8 from January's 53.2, with the consensus forecast having actually pointed to an increase to 53.5.

New business growth slowed for the third month running, with snowfall in the east coast adding to disruption and leading to the weakest rise in new work for 13 months.

The sector's slowdown raised the significant risk that the US economy would fall into contraction in the first quarter, economists said.

Meanwhile, Kansas City Fed president Esther George said the central bank should be prepared to consider raising rates in March despite the recent volatility in global market.

“It absolutely should be on the table” at the next meeting, the hawkish George told Bloomberg on Tuesday. “At this point I would not say that the data have suggested there has been a fundamental shift in the outlook.”

But Dallas Fed counterpart Robert Kaplan argued for patience.

"In order to reach our inflation objective we may need to be more patient than we previously might have thought," he said, in an interview with the Financial Times.

"If that means we take an extended period of time where we stop and don´t move, that may also be necessary. I am not prejudging that."

In company news, JPMorgan’s shares dipped after it said it would set aside another $500 million in provisions for expected losses on energy loans and that revenues were falling at its investment bank.

Gas producer Chesapeake Energy gushed higher after it planned to sell more assets, halve spending and renegotiate pipeline contracts as it aims to take an axe to its debts.

First Solar jumped after its fourth quarter results beat expectations. The company cut its sales guidance for 2016 and reported a 6.5% drop in sales in its fourth quarter of $942.3m.

S&P 500 - Risers
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $2.69 +22.83%
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $69.45 +12.40%
Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) $2.31 +9.48%
Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) $33.97 +7.47%
Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) $16.63 +6.60%
Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) $60.61 +5.43%
Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) $71.65 +5.35%
HP Inc (HPQ) $10.82 +4.95%
NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) $10.83 +4.94%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $69.90 +4.94%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Transocean Ltd. (RIG) $8.20 -3.98%
United States Steel Corp. (X) $7.73 -3.86%
Ford Motor Co. (F) $12.08 -2.74%
State Street Corp. (STT) $54.18 -2.61%
Zions Bancorporation (ZION) $20.67 -2.52%
Torchmark Corp. (TMK) $50.64 -2.28%
Signet Jewelers Ltd (SIG) $97.97 -2.20%
CBRE Group Inc (CBG) $25.27 -2.05%
Regions Financial Corp. (RF) $7.42 -1.98%
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG) $514.86 -1.94%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $93.61 +2.19%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $96.10 +1.49%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $29.19 +1.35%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $67.12 +0.96%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $125.61 +0.87%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $104.96 +0.85%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $26.32 +0.77%
3M Co. (MMM) $157.22 +0.67%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $108.48 +0.53%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $43.91 +0.50%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Boeing Co. (BA) $115.59 -1.12%
General Electric Co. (GE) $28.96 -0.89%
American Express Co. (AXP) $54.64 -0.85%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $120.20 -0.78%
Visa Inc. (V) $71.85 -0.42%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $81.56 -0.31%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) $71.65 +5.35%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $69.90 +4.94%
Liberty Interactive Corporation QVC Group (QVCA) $25.95 +3.39%
Incyte Corp. (INCY) $74.32 +3.21%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $31.71 +3.19%
Sba Communications Corp. (SBAC) $95.70 +3.17%
Vimpelcom Ltd Ads (VIP) $3.70 +2.92%
Monster Beverage Corp (MNST) $132.40 +2.80%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $91.61 +2.79%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $24.99 +2.75%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Liberty Global plc Series C (LBTYK) $36.11 -2.38%
Liberty Global plc Series A (LBTYA) $37.20 -2.03%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $47.58 -1.82%
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) $19.29 -1.38%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $49.18 -1.03%
Biogen Inc (BIIB) $257.22 -0.68%
PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $51.17 -0.64%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $58.11 -0.60%
Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $29.89 -0.47%
Illumina Inc. (ILMN) $149.42 -0.35%