Following the lead of European markets, and encouraged by the resurgence of the oil price, US blue-chips opened sharply higher.
The US oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate for March delivery, was up more than 7% after the Baker Hughes rig count reported a decline in oil rigs in use in the US for the ninth week in a row.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were both up 1.4% after 45 minutes of trading, with the former up 26 points at 1,944 and the latter up 61 points at 4,566. The Dow Jones was up 1.3%, or 210 points, at 16,602.
Not surprisingly, energy stocks such as Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) and CONSOL Energy (NYSE:CNX) were among the blue-chip leaders.
Mid-cap Kosmos Energy (NYSE:KOS) shot up 15.4% as the company declared an underlying net income of $17.6mln in the fourth quarter, which reduced the loss for the year to $65.6mln.
Flooring firm Lumber Liquidators (NYSE:LL) slumped more than 20% after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that its previous assessment of the cancer risk posed by the retailer's flooring, which contains known carcinogen formaldehyde, had been on the low side.
Skin health company Photomedex (NASDAQ:PHMD), up 46%, was wanted after it unveiled plans to sell its consumer and professional business to DS Healthcare Group for around $48mln.