Wall Street ends higher after bounce in oil prices

Earnings reports topping modest expectations helps

The Dow and S&P 500 ended higher on Tuesday, helped by energy stocks and quarterly earnings reports that topped modest expectations following worries about a strong dollar.

Shares of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other energy companies followed crude higher after a forecast that US shale oil output in May would record its first monthly decline in more than four years. The S&P 500 energy index jumped 1.77%.

Norfolk Southern Corp dropped 4.18% to $100.49 a day after it forecast a surprise drop in its first-quarter earnings and revenue.

A strong dollar, cheap oil and poor weather in the eastern United States in recent months have investors bracing for a difficult March-quarter earnings season.

 

First-quarter profits for S&P 500 companies are seen falling 2.9%, according to Thomson Reuters data. On Jan. 1, analysts had been looking for growth of 5.3%.

Those lowered expectations mean that companies can now more easily impress investors, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.

"This may be one of most hated earnings seasons I remember," Hogan said. "We've taken those three negative headwinds and ploughed them as far as we can into the worst-case scenario."

Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co rose 1.6% after the biggest US bank by assets reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 59.66 points, or 0.33%, to end at 18,036.7. The S&P 500 gained 3.41 points, or 0.16%, to 2,095.84 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 10.96 points, or 0.22%, to 4,977.29, with Apple down 0.43%.

After the bell, Intel Corp forecast revenue broadly in line with Wall Street's low expectations and signalled a hefty cut in capital expenditures this year, sending its shares up 2.6%.

US railroad CSX Corp reported a higher quarterly net profit and announced a $2 billion share repurchase programme, sending its shares 3.43% higher in extended trade.

During the regular session, Chevron's shares gained 2.2% and Exxon rose 1.5%.

Nokia Oyj is in talks to buy Alcatel-Lucent SA , a deal that would combine the telecommunications industry's two weakest players.

US shares of Nokia fell 4.09% to $7.96 while Alcatel rose 13.33% to $4.93.

Companies expected to report this week include GE , Philip Morris International Inc and Bank of America Corp .

The dollar was down 0.75% against a basket of major currencies, leaving it with a gain of nearly 10% so far in 2015. A stronger dollar tends to hurt profits for US multinationals.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,910 to 1,120, for a 1.71-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,426 issues fell, and 1,289 advanced for a 1.11-to-1 ratio favouring decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 posted five new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 74 new highs and 32 new lows.

About 5.8 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, below the 6.1 billion daily average for the month to date, according to BATS Global Markets.