World oil rally pushes Wall St acceleration – New York Report
RISING oil prices boosted energy stocks in the US yesterday, with the S&P 500 up for a fifth day in a row for the first time this year, while investors also bet the Federal Reserve would delay raising interest rates until 2016.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 304.06 points, or 1.85 per cent, to 16,776.43, the S&P 500 gained 35.61 points, or 1.82 per cent, to 1,986.97 and the Nasdaq Composite added 73.49 points, or 1.56 per cent, to 4,781.26.
“I think we had a very successful retest of the August lows so there’s reason for optimism,” said James Meyer, chief investment officer at Tower Bridge Advisors.
“But we’re not out of the woods yet. It’s not completely complete that you can say ‘all clear’. In fundamental terms I think we overbid it on the pessimistic side.”
The CBOE Volatility Index, the so-called Fear Index, dipped below 20 in intraday trade for the first time since 17 September, when it briefly fell below 18 just after the Fed statement was released.
General Electric was among the best performers, up 5.3 per cent to $26.82 after activist investor Nelson Peltz’s fund disclosed a $2.5bn (£1.65bn) stake in the conglomerate.
Shares of Twitter surged nearly seven per cent, attempting to top its 50-day moving average of $27.85 a share, on news the social media firm named Jack Dorsey permanent chief executive.
Meanwhile, Caterpillar added 5.30 per cent and Cisco Systems was up 4.23 per cent.
Shares of Alphabet, the new umbrella company for Google, closed 2.32 per cent higher.