By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – Wall Street ended higher Tuesday as investors continue to bet on economic recovery in the second half of the year even as widespread protests in the U.S. threatened to slow the pace of reopening nationwide.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.05%, or 267 points, the S&P 500 gained 0.83%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.59%.
Violent protests continued to erupt across U.S. cities over the death of George Floyd and threaten to undo some of the economic reopening progress made so far.
Several companies, including Target (NYSE:TGT), Walmart (NYSE:WMT), and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) temporarily shut some of their stores as protests turned violent.
But the civil unrest has done little to cool investor sentiment on stocks, with sectors sensitive to the reopening progress such as manufacturers, energy companies and banks adding to their recent gains.
Citigroup (NYSE:C) rose 2.8% and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) was up about 1.95%, while Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) rose 0.83% after pledging to commit $1 billion over four years to support economic and racial inequality accelerated by a global pandemic.
Energy was the biggest gainer on the day, underpinned by rising oil prices amid growing expectations major producers will extend production cuts when they meet virtually later this week.
RBC Capital Markets' Helima Croft said major oil producers are expected to agree a one- to three-month extension.
Tech, meanwhile, turned positive into the close as, as FAANG pared losses.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) clawed back losses despite coming under scrutiny for failing to take action on a post from President Donald Trump that appeared to threaten to start shooting looters.
Shares of Apple ended higher after the tech giant cut the prices of its latest iPhones in China ahead of a major online shopping festival on June 18.