LONDON: U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday, well off session highs, but mostly shook off pressure from further decline in oil prices as beaten-down sectors such as energy were among the top gainers. ( Tweet This )
“What we really need is to see a market that can trade higher agnostic to oil prices,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.
“Breaking that correlation with WTI, … that is a head turner,” he said.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended about 80 points higher after gaining as much as 205 points, with Boeing and Chevron contributing the most to gains. The Nasdaq composite ended about 0.4 percent higher after briefly gaining 1 percent, with Apple and the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) both posting gains but off session highs.
“You’ve got the market rebounding after a three-day steep sell-off that brought the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq (near) their 200-day moving averages, a perfect area for support,” said Adam Sarhan, CEO of Sarhan Capital.
