Wall Street fluctuated on Tuesday, pressured by sliding crude prices.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% at 16,016 after dropping as low as 15,900 in the afternoon. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX0 was unchanged at 1,881, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.3% at 4,477.
West Texas Intermediate oil futures headed lower on Tuesday, but Brent prices climbed.
February West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3.3% to settle at $28.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the lowest settlement for a front-month contract since September 2003.
March Brent crude, the global crude benchmark, rose 0.7% to $28.76 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange.
U.S. stocks had opened higher after a report showed China's growth in 2015 was the slowest in 25 years but in line with expectations.
Tiffany (NYSE:TIF) slumped 5.4% to $64.02.after the jewelry retailer posted a holiday-period sales decline and cut its outlook.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) declined 6.7% to $16.75 after the social network grappled with a service outage early Tuesday.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) wavered and was last up 1.2% at $26.27, relinquishing an earlier advance after the bank’s quarterly profit topped expectations.
Rival Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) fell 0.6% to $14.38, paring earlier losses to as low as $14.01 after the banking behemoth lagged behind fourth-quarter revenue expectations.
Market Open
Wall Street opened higher on Tuesday, rebounding from its worst 10-session start to a year ever.
Stocks rallied as China's slowest annual growth rate in 25 years boosted hopes of further stimulus measures from Beijing. The rally was also helped strong earnings reports from Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS).
At 10:36 a.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) rose 1% to 16,141.17. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) was up 0.9% at 1,897.39. The Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) was up 0.8% at 4,524.59. Friday saw the S&P 500 sinking to its lowest since October 2014.
China's 2015 growth hit 6.9% after the fourth quarter decelerated to 6.8%, capping a tumultuous year in which concerns about Beijing ability to rebalance the slowing economy have rattled investors across markets.
Crude continued to fall on Tuesday, with West Texas Intermediate futures losing 1.5%, paring an earlier 3.6% slide.
U.S. data showed confidence among homebuilders was unchanged at the start of year, indicating the residential real estate market was sustaining the steady progress made in 2015.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) rose 2.6% to $26.65. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) fluctuated and was last down 0.5% at $14.39.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) are among those posting results on Tuesday after markets close.
Pre-Open
US stocks are poised to recoup losses as traders continue to worry about global growth and mull the speed of Fed interest rate rises this year.
US markets were closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.
In London, at the time of writing, the FTSE100 is up 124 points, along with other European indices.
US crude prices are also gaining after recent falls with spot WTI up 2.18% to above the psychologically significant US$30 a barrel mark.
The Dow finished Monday 391 points, at 15,988, while the S&P500 lost 42 to stand at 1,880. The tech heavy Nasdaq shed 127 points to go to 4,488.
In futures trading, the Dow Jones is up 271 points, while S&P500 futures are 32 ahead. The Nasdaq futures are trading up around 73 points.