A strong rebound in oil prices and an encouraging report on retail sales helped lift the U.S. stock market Friday, putting it on course for its first gain in a week. Financial and energy companies were among the biggest gainers. Oil was up more than 11%.
The Dow Jones industrial average had risen 226 points, or 1.5%, to 15,887 as of 1:54 p.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 24 points, or 1.4%, to 1,853. The Nasdaq composite added 42 points, or 1%, to 4,309.
"Oil, which has been one of the most fickle, most volatile series that everybody’s watching, is having a nice day," said Tim Dreiling, regional investment director for the Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank. "Europe is continuing to look good. And it looked like [the market] was oversold."
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ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was up $ 3, or 11.4%, to $ 29.21 a barrel in electronic trading in New York. The contract had tumbled to $ 26.21 on Thursday, its lowest level since May 2003. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, gained $ 2.63, or 8.7%, to $ 32.69 a barrel in London.
PUMPED UP: Marathon oil climbed 4.6% as the price of crude oil rebounded. The stock was the best performer in the energy sector.
GOOD BET: Wynn Resorts surged 11.8% after the casino operator reported better-than-expected quarterly results Thursday.
BANK REBOUND: Several banking stocks bounced back from a sector-wide slide on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase climbed 7.5%, and Citigroup added 6.4%.
BUYBACK BOOST: Deutsche Bank AG surged 11% after the bank offered to buy back more than $ 5 billion in bonds in a display of financial strength.
GOOD DEAL: Groupon vaulted 29% after the online daily deal service’s latest quarterly profit and revenue topped Wall Street estimates.
VISA EFFECT: Investors bid up shares in Square after Visa disclosed an ownership stake of almost 10% in the mobile-payment services company.
NO JOY: Activision Blizzard slid 8.9% after the video game company reported weaker-than-anticipated quarterly revenue Thursday. The stock was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500 index.
BAD TUNE: Pandora Media slumped 16.5% after the Internet radio company’s fourth-quarter profit fell short of estimates and the company didn’t comment on rumors that it’s looking to sell itself.
ROCKY ROAD: The stock market ended lower in the five days leading up to Friday. Global stocks have been in a slump since the beginning of the year on concerns that growth in China, which has been the engine of the global economy in recent years, is slowing far faster than expected. Plunging oil prices and low inflation have added to the market’s jitters that the global economy is sputtering.
GOING SHOPPING: The Commerce Department said retail sales increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in January, the same as the previous month. The modest gain is evidence that people kept shopping despite sharp drops in stock prices, and it was better than the 0.1% increase economists had expected. Excluding the effect of falling gas prices, sales rose 0.4%.
OVERSEAS MARKETS: In Europe, Germany’s DAX was up 2.5%, and France’s CAC 40 was up 2.5%. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 3.1%. In Asia, Japan’s main stock index fell sharply, leading other Asian markets lower. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 plunged 4.8%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.2%. South Korea’s Kospi gave up 1.4%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.2%. Shares in New Zealand and Southeast Asia also fell. Markets in China and Taiwan were closed all week for Lunar New Year holidays and will reopen Monday.
BONDS AND CURRENCIES: Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.75% from 1.66% late Thursday. In currency markets, the dollar rose to 113.45 yen from 112.27, while the euro fell to $ 1.1243 from $ 1.1330.
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