Energy Stocks Power Wall Street Rally as Oil Prices Surge on U.S. Sanctions Against Russia

U.S. markets closed higher with energy and tech stocks leading gains after sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil sent crude oil soaring. The Nasdaq jumped 0.9% while investors shrugged off mixed earnings from Tesla and IBM.

The Nasdaq jumped 201.40 points (0.9%) to 22,941.80, the S&P 500 climbed 39.04 points (0.6%) to 6,738.44 and the Dow rose 144.20 points (0.3%) at 46,734.61.

Energy stocks displayed substantial strength as the price of crude oil skyrocketed after the Trump administration announced sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies. The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, citing Russia's "lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine." President Donald Trump recently expressed some optimism about ending the drawn-out Russia-Ukraine war before suddenly canceling a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Energy sector was strong leading to a spike of 4.8% by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index and the NYSE Arca Oil Index jumped by 3%. Computer hardware stocks was substantially strong as reflected by the 4% surge by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index. SanDisk (SNDK) helped lead the sector higher, with the data storage device maker soaring by 13.7% to a record closing high. Networking, semiconductor and steel stocks too saw considerable strength on the day while transportation stocks showed a notable move to the downside.

The strength on Wall Street came as the markets shrugged off an initially negative reaction to corporate earnings news from companies like Tesla (TSLA) and IBM Corp (IBM). Tesla showed a significant turnaround over the course of the session, jumping by 2.3% even though the electric vehicle maker reported weaker than expected third quarter earnings. Tech giant IBM ended the day down by 0.8% but was well off its lows post reporting third quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates but slowing growth in its core cloud computing business.

Honeywell (HON) shot up by 6.8% after the industrial giant reported third quarter results that beat analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines. In U.S. economic news, a report released by the National Association of Realtors showed existing home sales in the U.S. increased in line with economist estimates in the month of September. NAR said existing home sales jumped by 1.5% to an annual rate of 4.06 million in September after dipping by 0.2% to an annual rate of 4.00 million in August. The rebound matched expectations.

Asia-Pacific stocks turned in a mixed performance. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 1.4% while China's Shanghai Composite Index edged up by 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed by 0.7%. The major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.7%, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both crept up by 0.2%.

In the bond market, treasuries gave back ground after trending higher over the past several sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note which moves opposite of its price, climbed 3.8 bps to 3.99%.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News