Sharp rally at Wall Street

All 10 main sectors advanced led by healthcare and technology scetors

U.S. stocks rallied sharply on Thursday as a rebound in oil prices allowed the main indexes to claw back much of the steep fall seen in the previous session. Gains on Wall Street were across the board, but energy shares outperformed all others as crude-oil futures rose 2.4% to $31.20 a barrel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 227.64 points, or 1.4%, to 16,379.05. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 88.94 points, or 2%, to 4,615.00. The S&P 500 index closed up 31.56 points, or 1.7%, at 1,921.84. All 10 main sectors advanced. The health care and technology sectors were up 2.7% and 2% respectively.

Trader and investor anxiety returned to the world marketplace overnight. Stock markets in Asia and Europe were mostly lower, following the rout in U.S. equities that occurred Wednesday afternoon. Worries about falling raw commodity prices, led by crude oil, are partly responsible for the sharp sell-offs in world stock markets early this year. Slowing economic growth from the world's second-largest economy, China, is also prompting uneasiness and is also causing turmoil in the world's periphery currency markets.

U.S. economic data released Thursday was light and included the weekly jobless claims report and import and export pricesneither of which had a significant impact on the commodity markets.

The Initial Claims report showed that claims increased to 284,000 from last week's unrevised rate of 277,000 (consensus 275,000) This was above the consensus but within the 250,000-300,000 range that has held since July 2014. The Department of Labor said there were no special factors influencing the latest initial claims reading, which pushed the four-week moving average up by 3,000 to 278,750. Continuing claims for the week ending January 2 were 2.263 million, an increase of 33,000 from the previous week's revised level of 2.234 million (from 2.230 million). The four-week moving average for continuing claims increased by 5,250 to 2.224 million.

Separately, import prices excluding oil fell 0.4% in December after declining 0.2% in November. Export prices excluding agriculture decreased 1.0% in December after falling 0.6% in November.

Bullion prices ended lower on Thursday, 14 January 2016 at Comex. Gold prices were ending the U.S. day session moderately lower, with selling interest tied to a good bounce in the U.S. stock market on Thursday. A higher U.S. dollar index on this day was also a negative outside market force working against the precious metals market bulls.

February Comex gold was last down $9.30 at $1,077.80 an ounce. March Comex silver was last down $0.331 at $13.825 an ounce.

Oil futures rebounded on Thursday, 14 January 2016 at Nymex settling higher for a second straight session after dips below the key $30 level this week. But traders continue to voice concerns over swelling U.S. inventories and the potential for Iranian oil to add to the glut. Natural-gas futures meanwhile, sank nearly 6% to their lowest settlement of the year so far, as data showed U.S. supplies of the commodity fell less than expected last week.

February West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 72 cents, or 2.4%, to settle at $31.20 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On its expiration day, February Brent crude traded on London's ICE Futures exchange also settled up 72 cents, or 2.4%, at $31.03 a barrel.

Tomorrow, December CPI (consensus +0.1%), December Retail Sales (consensus +0.1%) and January Empire Manufacturing Index (consensus -3.5) will be reported at 8:30 ET. The December Industrial Production report (consensus 77.5%) will cross the wires at 9:15 ET while November Business Inventories (consensus +0.0%) and the preliminary reading of the Michigan Sentiment Index for January (consensus 92.6) will both be released at 10:00 ET.

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