U.S. stocks bounced back on Tuesday from Monday’s pullback, with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average index and SP 500 closing at all-time highs, bolstered by strong gains in health insurance companies.
The blue-chip Dow also set another record intraday high of 14, 684.49 points before paring early gains. The index jumped 89.16 points, or 0.61 percent, to 14,662.01.
The broader Standard Poor’s 500-stock Index surged 8.08 points, or 0.52 percent, to 1,570.25. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index soared 15.69 points, or 0.48 percent, to 3,254.86.
The main stock indices opened higher, following a rally in the European stock market as worries about Cypriot situation eased. Some European stock exchanges closed on Easter Monday.
The market moved higher, boosted by leaping shares of health insurers which benefited from the Medicare Advantage rate revise announced by federal government on Monday. Shares of Humana surged 5.45 percent while UnitedHealth shares rose 4.70 percent. In addition, Aetna shares were up 3.67 percent.
Wall Street has been showing impressive resilience since the start of this year. The market seemingly could rebound soon after a selloff as investors intended to buy a dip.
On the economic front, new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in February increased 3.0 percent, following a dip of 1.0 percent in the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.
The CBOE Volatility Index, considered the fear gauge of Wall Street, dipped 5.89 percent to 12.78.
In corporate news, Verizon shares gained 0.57 percent to 49.50 U.S. dollars and ATT shares rose 0.86 percent to 37.57 dollars after the two telecom giants have been reportedly working on a 245- billion- -dollar break-up bid for Vodafone. If the deal succeeds, it would be the biggest takeover in history.
Shares of Ford and General Motors advanced 0.85 percent and 0. 47 percent respectively after posting increasing auto sales.
Goldman Sachs shares were up 0.44 percent to 146.68 dollars though Bank of America downgraded the investment bank from Buy to Neutral and maintained a price objective of 155 dollars.
Shares of Nasdaq OMX Group plummeted 12.84 percent to 27.90 dollars after the company agreed to buy a trading platform from BGC Partners. BGC shares jumped 48.57 percent to 5.72 dollars.
In other markets, light, sweet crude for May delivery gained 12 cents, or 0.12 percent, to settle at 97.19 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday. While Brent crude for May delivery was down 39 cents, or 0.35 percent, to close at 110.69 dollars a barrel.
Gold future for June delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday fell 25 dollars, or 1.56 percent, to settle at 1,575.9 dollars per ounce.
The U.S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies on Tuesday. It advanced versus the euro after data showed the eurozone unemployment rate stayed at record high in February.
Source: Xinhuanet