Wall St gains on first day of trading in 2015; energy dips

By Ryan Vlastelica

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Friday, kicking off the new year with a broad rally, though crude oil prices continued to be pressured and kept energy shares in negative territory.

The day's gains were widespread, with nine of the 10 primary S&P 500 sectors climbing. The only group to fall was energy, the weakest sector of 2014, which lost 0.4 percent. Marathon Oil fell 0.9 percent to $28 while Newfield Exploration sank 2.4 percent to $26.47.

Crude oil fell 0.7 percent in a volatile session that saw it rise as much as 3.5 percent then fall as much as 2.3 percent, as a supply glut outweighed investor positioning at the start of the new year for a possible recovery. Oil is set for its 13th negative week out of the past 14, and is at levels not seen since 2009.

Wall Street ended 2014 with solid gains for the year and fourth quarter, though a broad decline Wednesday pushed the S&P 500 into negative territory for December. Still, the market has had an upward bias since mid-December, with the S&P rising in seven of the past 10 sessions.

"Last year was a tough year for active managers and hedge funds, and this year, people are determined to not get left behind. It's a New Year's resolution for some people to jump into the market," said Joshua Brown, vice president of investments at Fusion Analytics in New York.

The S&P 500 is about 1 percent away from its record close, and despite the day's advance, market participants will be questioning whether current levels are justified.

"I'd be a lot more comfortable if the market was, say, 20 percent lower," Brown said.

Despite the day's rise, major indexes remained on track for a negative week, with the Dow down 0.6 percent, the S&P off 1 percent and the Nasdaq off 1 percent.

On Thursday, when the stock market was closed for the New Year's holiday, General Motors Co announced three new vehicle recalls, the biggest involving the ignition-switch design of several SUV and pickup truck models. Shares fell 0.5 percent to $34.73.

In the latest economic data, construction spending unexpectedly fell in November by 0.3 percent, while the pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector slipped to a six-month low in December, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

At 10:03 a.m. (1503 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average rose 88.36 points, or 0.5 percent, to 17,911.43, the S&P 500 gained 5.86 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,064.76 and the Nasdaq Composite added 17.06 points, or 0.36 percent, to 4,753.11.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,631 to 1,198, for a 1.36-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,390 issues rose and 972 fell for a 1.43-to-1 ratio.

The benchmark S&P 500 index posted 8 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 40 new highs and 7 new lows.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)