LONDON: U.S. stocks jumped, with benchmark indexes removing falls for the year, as oil resumed a rebound and Pfizer Inc. announced a $17 billion deal.
Denbury Resources Inc. and Noble Corp. jumped more than 3.7 percent as oil climbed 4.7 percent. Pfizer added 2.9 percent as it agreed to buy Hospira Inc., the biggest provider of injectable drugs and infusion technology. Hospira jumped 35 percent.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 1 percent to 2,062.52 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 211.86 points, or 1.2 percent, to 17,884.88. The Russell 2000 Index surged 1.5 percent. About 7 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges Thursday, 3.2 percent more than the three-month average.
“Right now it’s earnings, Greece and M&A,” Krishna Memani, the New York-based chief investment officer at Oppenheimer Funds Inc., said by phone. “It’s more about the corporate outlook in the U.S. remaining good and the realization that while the Greek issue is important, it will eventually be resolved.”
The S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent yesterday, following the biggest two-day rally in almost a month, as stocks gave up gains in the final 30 minutes after the European Central Bank tightened its rules on lending to Greek banks and oil retreated.
