Energy, biotech lift Wall St. to second straight day of gains

Yesterday's modest rally turned into today's much bigger rally but, again, the intraday trading revealed a very different alternate reality.  In fact, the volatility was again huge and the session could have just as easily ended on an 80 point loss (as late as 2:15 p.m.) or the nearly 200 point gain that happened right out the gate.  So once again it was pretty much a random event when the low and high has a nearly 300 point expanse.  Today the price of crude came down still again, this time to below $30/barrel, the first time it's been below $30 in twelve years.  Investors are still looking for a bottom, with both oil and China, and until one makes itself apparent, confidence will be limited.  But the market is widely considered to be wildly oversold so a lot more buying is expected in near future days.  Our highs and lows today came on very vigorous trading of 9 billion, way above the 7.5 billion average of the past month.

Energy, biotech lift Wall St. to second straight day of gains

BY CAROLINE VALETKEVITCH

DJ:  16,516.22  +117.65      NAS: 4,685.92  +47.93       S&P: 1,938.68  +15.01

(Reuters)  A late rebound in energy and biotech shares helped push the S&P 500 to a second straight day of gains on Tuesday, while Apple and other technology shares also boosted the market.

The Nasdaq snapped an eight-session losing streak, with the Nasdaq Biotech Index .NBI rebounding late, also breaking an eight-day run of losses. The biotech index, among the hardest-hit in this year's selloff, ended up 1.5 percent.

Crude oil prices ended lower (below $30/barrel, first time in 12 years) after another roller-coaster session, but the S&P 500 energy index .SPNY reversed course to end up 0.4 percent, while shares of Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) jumped 2 percent to $75.20 and Chevron (CVX.N) rose 1.7 percent to $82.15.

Technical indicators also suggested a rebound was in order, even if it is just short-lived, analysts said.

"This looks to me like a technical bounce. The market's very oversold," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Bolton Global Asset Management in Boston.

"Until investors can fundamentally get their heads around oil at this price, the market will react to oil and China."

Stocks had their worst five-day start to a year ever following mounting investor concerns about declining oil prices and a China-led slowdown in global growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 117.65 points, or 0.72 percent, to 16,516.22, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 15.01 points, or 0.78 percent, to 1,938.68 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 47.93 points, or 1.03 percent, to 4,685.92.

The S&P 500 closed above the key 1,900 level, as it did on Monday, in a bullish technical sign.

Apple (AAPL.O) ended up 1.5 percent at $99.96 after Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts upgraded their rating on the stock, while Intel (INTC.O) rose 1.9 percent to $32.68 after J.P. Morgan gave upbeat comments on the stock.

Shares of Alcoa (AA.N) dropped 9 percent to $7.28, a day after it posted a quarterly net loss.

Health insurer Anthem Inc (ANTM.N), which is buying rival Cigna Corp (CI.N), said it expected adjusted net income to rise to over $10.80 per share in 2016 from $10.16 estimated for 2015.

Volume remained heavy. About 9.0 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, above the 7.5 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,600 to 1,470, for a 1.09-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,417 issues rose and 1,412 fell for a 1-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and 62 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 12 new highs and 323 new lows.