Major U.S. benchmarks rallied toward the end of Monday’s trading session, closing markedly higher as investors shrug off low energy prices. Despite initial declines that saw main indexes follow the selloff in European markets and the battered energy sector, stocks rebounded later in the session with the telecom and technology sectors leading the rally. The S&P 500 added 15.60 points, or 0.78%, to trade at 2,021, as all 10 sectors finish higher. The energy sector, which had initially fallen 0.5%, managed to close marginally higher. Telecoms and technology stocks led the gainers, each rising more than 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 122.87 points, or 0.72%, to trade at 17,251.42, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 45.84 points, or 0.93%, to close Monday’s trading session at 4,968.92. Energy prices continued to move lower on Monday. Crude oil fell 0.7% to trade at $35.81 a barrel and has since seen further declines to below $34 a barrel as a newly released report reveals that the U.S. oil rig count has increased for the first time in five weeks. U.S. markets will close early on Christmas Eve and will remain closed until the following Monday.
Asian shares edged higher in Tuesday’s early Asian session, following Wall Street’s lead as some stability is found in the ongoing rout in commodity prices. However, gains were seen as limited by caution ahead of this week’s holidays. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.4 percent after Wall Street solid overnight gains. Australia's ASX 200 index was 0.2 percent higher. The Chinese CSI 300 index rose slightly higher, paring earlier declines, and the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.1% after rallying on the previous session. The Japanese Nikkei stock index closed 0.2% lower, though the index remained comfortably above its early-session lows.
In currencies, the U.S. dollar gained some ground against other currencies. The dollar index, which compares the greenback to a basket of its peer-currencies, rose by around 0.1% to 98.485, though it remained below its recent two-week high of 99.294 reached on Thursday after the Federal Reserve’s announcement of a U.S. interest rate hike. The dollar gained around 0.1% against the Japanese yen to trade at 121.25 yen. The euro moved slightly lower against the dollar and is trading near $1.0908 after some initial gains on the greenback.
This week’s major economic data releases continue with today’s release of Eurozone and U.K. consumer confidence, followed by U.S. GDP and home sales data. U.K. GDP and U.S. durable goods will be released on Wednesday, and Japanese unemployment and inflation rates are scheduled to release on Friday.