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Wall Street held gains in afternoon trading amid a rally in oil prices and as Facebook surged on a strong quarterly report.
At 3:32 p.m. in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) rose 0.8% to 16076.90. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) increased 0.7% to 1894.97 while the Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) gained 0.9% to 4506.46.
U.S. crude oil futures settled above $33 a barrel.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) jumped 16% to $109.11 after posting more than $1bn in quarterly net income for the first time reflecting the social network's ability to quickly capitalize on its popularity.
eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) plunged 13% to $23.09 after the online marketplace reported another drop in quarterly revenue. Ford Motor (NYSE:F) declined 0.7% despite swinging to a profit.
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) gained 4.7% to $61.10 even as the maker of construction equipment forecast a bigger decline in sales for the remainder of the year.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) advanced 9.4% to $637.69. The retailer is due to report earnings after the closing bell.
Lunchtime
Shares were a little off the top in the lunchtime session but still sitting pretty helped by a recovery in oil prices.
The Dow Jones was up 76 points or 0.5% at 16017 while the S&P 500 was 11 points or 0.6% to the good at 1893. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite boosted by Facebook's surge today outdid the pair of them rising 0.9% or 39 points to 4507.
In New York trading the price of West Texas light sweet crude for March delivery was up US$1.26 at US$33.56 as hopes rise that oil cartel OPEC and Russia will mutually agree to cut output.
Facebook continues to enjoy a lift from results released last night but it has been out-jumped by Under Armour (NYSE:UA) which is up 20% after the sportswear seller revealed footwear sales rose 95% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.
ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) went the other way losing one-sixth of its value as results released after the bell yesterday failed to wow investors.
The information technology company's fourth quarter numbers were decent enough but the revenue forecast was weak and enough to prompt research firms MKM and Mizuho to downgrade the shares to 'neutral'.
Open
After a night spent licking their wounds buyers returned to the market this morning.
The Dow Jones was up 133 points of 0.8% after half an hour's trading at 16078 while the broader-based S&P 500 was up 0.8% at 1897. The Nasdaq Composite boosted by Facebook's (NASDQQ:FB) surge was doing better still up 1.0% at 4.514.
Shares rose despite indifferent durable goods data.
'Choppy US Durable goods data is not normally worth losing sleep over but as these data will feed into tomorrow's first estimate of 4Q15 GDP these numbers are worth a longer glance than usual. December headline orders fell a worse-than-expected 5.1% mom [month-on-month] and November orders were revised lower to -0.5% from 0.0%' noted Rob Carnell of Global Economics ING.
Results from Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) received a lot of likes. The social media giant's quarterly revenue topped US$5bn for the first time and it was also the first quarter in which it posted more than US$1bn in quarterly net income.
Shares rose as more than 13%. The stock had gained 21% over the past twelve months through the close of trading on Wednesday.
Away from the heavyweights a couple of medical stocks were setting the pace.
Neos Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NEOS) shot up by more than a third as it celebrated approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Adzenys XR-ODT candidate for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Interpace Diagnostics (NASDAQ:IDXG) soared 47% to 48 cents as it announced publication of a multi-center study on its PacraGen molecular test which can give doctors valuable insight into whether a suspected pancreatic cancer sufferer needs to go under the knife or not.
Investors turned their back on Attunity (NASDAQ:ATTU) the 'Big Data' software firm after its fourth quarter numbers disappointed. Revenue was slightly lower than expected as a result of longer sales cycles and new licensing models the company said.
The shares lost just over a quarter of their value.
Pre-open
Now that traders have had more time to decrypt yesterday's statement from the Federal Reserve shares look set to claw back some of Wednesday's losses.
Spread betting quotes indicate the Dow Jones Industrial Average will head back towards 16000 opening at around 15985 up 40 or so points. The S&P 500 looks set to rise six points to around 1889.
Having said that the quotes are definitely heading lower and it may be that by the time the market opens the picture will be more mixed.
'A turnaround could occur dependent on the state of this afternoon's US data; however with the core durable goods orders forecast at -0.1% against 0.0% last month barely countered by an expected drop in jobless claims investors may be left wanting' suggested Connor Campbell a financial analyst at Spreadex.
Social media giant Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is likely to be in focus after a sparkling set of results released last night.
The previous decade's glamor internet stock eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) looks set to plunge after its fourth quarter update revealed anemic sales.
Big names set to report today include Alibaba Caterpillar Ford Harley-Davidson and Time Warner Cable while after the close Amazon Microsoft Electronics Arts and Visa are set to weigh in.
In the papers The Washington Post covers the slightly surprising fall-out between Fox News and Republican presidential candidate wannabe Donald Trump. The post says the tit-for-tat feud is like none seen in the annals of modern American politics.
The New York Times referring to Trump as Donald J. Trump to differentiate him from all the other Donald Trumps running for the Republican party's nomination also covers the clash saying neither side show signs of budging.
On the paper's business pages it reports that the quarter was another blockbuster for social media giant Facebook as revenue was pumped higher by mobile ads.
The Wall Street Journal asks how bad is the oil bust and asserts that even those professing to be sure of an inevitable rebound are literally hedging their bets.
The Boston Globe covers the rapprochement between Mayor Martin Walsh and Las Vegas billionaire Steve Wynn that has seen a deal inked for a new US$1.7bn casino to be built in Everett.
The city will drop all legal efforts to stop the casino in exchange for an extra US$6 million over the 15-year term of the agreement.
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