US equities rallied on Tue as crude oil prices tumbled. Investor sentiment was also helped by the release of factory-gate inflation data which was a bit less hot than expected.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 599.10 pts, or 1.82%, to close at 33,544.34. The S&P 500 index rose 2.14%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.92%. The small cap Russell 2000 gained 1.4%.
The front-month Brent and WTI crude oil futures closed down $6.99 at US$99.91/bbl and $6.57 at US$96.44/bbl respectively. Oil declined on renewed hopes of an Iran nuclear deal, while a resurgence of Covid lockdowns in China posed risks to demand.
Airline stocks got a boost, while the shares of energy producers fell. United (UAL US, +9.19%) and American (AAL US, +9.26%) rose. Chevron (CVX US, -5.06%) and Exxon (XOM US, -5.69%) fell.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note notched up 1.07 basis points (bps) to 2.1437%.
Policymakers at the US Federal Reserve are expected to raise interest rates 25 bps later today (Wed).
The most actively traded US gold futures (Apr) contracts settled down $31.10, or 1.6%, at US$1,929.70/oz. May silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, fell 14 cents, or 0.6%, to end at US$25.158/oz.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.1% to 99.097. European equity markets finished lower on Tue.
The UK FTSE lost 0.25%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.23%, while the German DAX retreated 0.09%.