US shares closed higher on Tuesday lapping up the best pace of new homes sales since the recession while higher oil prices buoyed the market further.
The data may fuel the growing optimism of central bank hawks for the Federal Reserve to raise rates as soon as June - a factor which had weighed on the bourse earlier in the week - but on Tuesday the market chose to celebrate the new evidence of an improving economy.
The US Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes jumped almost 17% to an annualised pace of 619,000 in April. That was the highest level since January 2008 and beat forecasts.
The market bellwether S&P500 ended up 1.4% at 2,076, while the S&P Midcap 400 was up 1.7% at 1,471, and the S&P Smallcap 600 was had one of its best one-day percentage gains of this year, up 2.1% at 694.
The bourse was also boosted by a 1.48% gain in oil prices. The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate ended up at $48.79.
Midsession
US stocks made convincing gains at midsession on Tuesday, lapping up the best pace of new homes sales since the recession.
The US Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes jumped almost 17% to an annualised pace of 619,000 in April. That was the highest level since January 2008 and beat forecasts.
The market bellwether S&P500 was up 1.3% at 2,075, while the S&P Midcap 400 was up 1.5% at 1,467, and the S&P Smallcap 600 was 1.8% higher at 691.
The bourse was also buoyed by a 1% gain in oil prices. The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $48.57.
The market has endured a downbeat week as investors continue to struggle with the prospect of coming interest rate hikes and navigate a 2016 market that's been volatile but virtually unchanged.
Open
As expected, US stocks went higher on the open as European stocks were doing well and as traders mulled positive new home sales data.
Sales in the UK of new homes surged last month, showing a robust demand and a confidence on the economy and interest rates.
Sales races up 16.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 619,000 - the biggest monthly jump in 24 years and beating estimates of 525,000.
At the time of writing, the Dow Jones was up over 200 points, or 1.15% at 17,693, the S&P500 is up 23 at 2,071, while the Nasdaq gained 68 to 4,834.
The mid-cap gauge S&P400 gained 1.17% to 1,463 and the S&P small cap 600 was also up 1.28% to 688.18.
In Europe, FTSE100 gained 1.15% to 6,206, while the German DAX gained 1.98% to stand at 10,037. The French CAC 40 was up 93 at 4,419m while the oil price was higher 1.08% to US$48.50 a barrel.
Gold, meanwhile, was down 1.37% to US$1,234.
On Nasdaq, a notable riser was Spherix Inc. (NASDAQ: SPEX), which shot up almost 110% to US$4.01 as it struck a second licensing agreement with RPX Corporation (RPXC).
Spherix has granted RPX a portfolio license in exchange for a cash payment and the return of all of the Series H preferred stock of Spherix currently held by RPX.
Best Buy Co (NYSE:BBY) lost over 8% to US$30.18 as it reported revenue for its latest quarter, which fell less than analysts were expecting amid strong appliance sales, but issued a soft profit forecast for the current quarter.