Investing.com - Stocks surged Wednesday as investors appeared relieved there was little rhetoric about trade wars and put their recession worries aside ahead of the Labor Day weekend.
The market gains were produced by rising energy, consumer discretionary and industrial stocks. The indexes more than offset losses suffered on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones industrials pushed higher because of strength in Boeing (NYSE:BA), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:NYSE:GS), Home Depot (NYSE:NYSE:HD), UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:NYSE:UNH) and chemical maker Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW).
The Dow closed up about 1%, while the S&P 500 added 0.66%. The Nasdaq Composite was up a more modest 0.38% because of weakness in such key tech stocks as Microsoft (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:MSFT), Facebook (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:FB) and Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:ADBE).
The Dow finished at 26,036, its first close above 26,000 since Thursday. Only three Dow components were lower. One was Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), down 0.7%. It had risen Monday and Tuesday despite a federal judge's order that the pharmaceutical giant pay $572 million in its role in the opioid crisis in Oklahoma.
The other Dow decliners were Travelers (NYSE:TRV) and Microsoft. Dow Inc. was the leader, up 3.3%, perhaps a rebound from several days of losses.
Energy shares moved higher on the Energy Information Administration's report of a big drawdown of U.S. crude oil inventories. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 85 cents to $55.78 a barrel. Brent, the global benchmark crude, climbed 90 cents to $59.93.
Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Apache (NYSE:APA) were among the energy leaders. Dow components Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) were up 0.7% and 0.9%, respectively.
Retailers had a decent day with gains across a wide spectrum, with Tiffany (NYSE:TIF), Macy’s (NYSE:M), Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN), Kohl's (NYSE:KSS) and Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) all winners.
Cimarex Energy (NYSE:XEC), cosmetics company Coty (NYSE:COTY), Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) and Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) among the S&P 500 leaders.
Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK), network security company Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT), software developer Ansys (NASDAQ:ANSS) and Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) were among the S&P 500 laggards.
Gold futures were off slightly at $1,549.10 an ounce.
Interest rates were lower, with the 10-Year yield at 1.471%. But there was still a yield inversion in place with the 10-2 Year Treasury Yield Spread at negative 3.55 basis points. The inversion is a signal of a possible recession ahead.
Another worrying signal: The yield on the 30-Year bond briefly hit a record low of 1.905%.
The market had fallen at the open in part on news that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won Queen Elizabeth II's approval to suspend Parliament until mid-October. The news pushed the GBP/USD lower against the dollar.
But the averages recovered later in the morning on the energy-share rally.
Even with today's rally, the major averages are still roughly 5% below their late July peaks and 3% to 3.5% below their peaks in the early fall of 2018 before the pre-Christmas slump.