U.S. stocks rallied for a third straight session on Wednesday, as investors digested a batch of economic reports amid a strong rebound in oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 185.34 points, or 1.06 percent, to 17,602.61. The S&P 500 added 25.32 points, or 1.24 percent, to 2,064.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 44.82 points, or 0.90 percent, to 5,045.93. The U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday that new orders for manufactured durable goods in November increased 100 million U.S. dollars, or virtually unchanged to 238.8 billion dollars.
In a separate report, the department said that U.S. personal income increased 44.4 billion dollars, or 0.3 percent, and personal consumption expenditures rose 40.1 billion dollars, or 0. 3 percent, in November. Meanwhile, U.S. sales of new single-family houses in November came in at a seasonally adjusted rate of 490,000, 4.3 percent above the revised October rate and 9.1 percent above the November 2014 estimate. "New home sales have been bobbing around the 500k level since hitting a post-recession high in February of this year.
Construction has been slower to recover than anticipated, creating tight supply and contributing to rising home prices," said Sophia Kearney-Lederman, an economic analyst at FTN Financial. Oil prices surged on Wednesday after an unexpected fall in U.S. inventories, with both the U.S. oil and Brent crude jumping nearly 4 percent. In response, the energy sector soared 4.24 percent as the biggest advancer in the S&P 500's ten sectors.
Trading volumes are expected to be relatively light this week, as the U.S. stock markets operate a shortened session on Thursday and close on Friday for Christmas.
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