Wall Street rebounded on Wednesday as a surge in retail and energy stocks helped markets to recover from the sharp plunge endured on Christmas Eve.
By the closing bell on Boxing Day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had finished up an eye-catching 1,086 points to hit 22,878, pushed up by a 7.2% gain from the sneaker maker Nike (NYSE:NKE) and a 7% return from both Apple Inc and Visa Inc.
Retail stocks performed particularly well, with Amazon.com shares (NASDAQ:AMZN) popping by 9.5% to $1,470.90 after the retailer announced its sales were buoyant over the Christmas period.
Data put out by Mastercard earlier in the day also lifted sentiment surrounding the shopping sector as it suggested that this Christmas was the best holiday shopping season in six years for retailers.
Energy shares also got a boost, with the S&P 500 Energy sector closing 6.24% higher thanks to the rebound in the price of crude oil. US West Texas Intermediate futures, a key benchmark, finished up 8.7% at $46.22.
Elsewhere, the S&P 500 added 116 points to hit 2,467 while the tech-laden Nasdaq closed up by 361 points to reach 6,554, boosted by its best-performer Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), which ended 10.4% higher thanks to bullish comments about “very strong” demand for its cars in 2019 from a Wedbush Securities analyst.
The Canadian and UK stock markets were closed for the Boxing Day holiday.