US stocks end higher after commodities recover

NEW YORK–US stocks ended solidly higher after a sharp fall on opening Thursday, following a recovery in commodity prices.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 65.89 points (0.52 percent) at 12,695.92.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 6.57 (0.49 percent) to 1,348.65, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 17.98 points (0.63 percent) to 2,863.04.

Stocks followed oil, precious metals and other commodities down in morning trade and then tracked their recovery, with the Dow swinging by 181 points.

Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert New York said the dollar’s sharp shifts since last week lie beneath all the volatility.

“Investors are trying to push commodities lower, taking each rise of the dollar as a pretext,” said Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert New York.

“When the dollar weakens again, they buy back their positions,” he said.

Economic statistics released Thursday meanwhile sent a mildly negative signal to the market.

Government data showed US retail sales grew slower than expected in April, with rising prices of fuel and food hitting consumers. That was a sign of weakening economic growth, some economists felt.

Down nearly two percent in the morning, big oil companies recovered as crude prices gained slightly in New York and London.

ExxonMobil was off 0.1 percent and Chevron gained 0.5 percent.

Dow component Cisco lost 4.8 percent after the company’s fiscal third-quarter report came in with an 18 percent drop in profit from a year earlier, and earnings per share more than 10 percent lower than analysts had expected.

Goldman Sachs shares were punished with a 3.5 percent drop after the powerful bank was downgraded by two analysts fearing the impact of a possible Justice Department criminal suit over its activities leading into the financial crisis.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.23 percent from 3.16 percent late Thursday, while that on the 30-year bond edged to 4.35 percent from 4.30 percent.

Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.