Stocks rebound after early slide; tech stocks lead gains

The stock lost $1.50 to $27.88.

The latest downturn in oil comes at a time when investors are increasingly uneasy about the trajectory of China’s economy and the possible implications for US company earnings.

“We’re slowly but surely finding a bottom in this selloff”, said Tim Ghriskey, who helps oversee $US1.5 billion as managing director and chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management. “Those two things are keeping investors on pins and needles right now”.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 52 points higher, or 0.32% to 16397. The Nasdaq composite added 16.6 points, about 0.4 percent, to 4,654.6.

The US markets closed mostly higher on Monday, after dipping in and out of negative territory as a deepening rout in oil prices hit the energy sector on the heels of the worst weekly start ever to a new year. It would be the second straight quarterly profit decline for S&P 500 companies.

Among materials stocks, Freeport-McMoRan tumbled 17 percent, while Caterpillar and DuPont were down almost 3 percent, weighing the most on the Dow. Data on options trades and analysts’ lowered forecasts suggest the market is betting on further declines. Meanwhile, its currency stabilized for a fourth consecutive trading day, easing concerns about the health of the world’s second-largest economy despite a late-session dive in Chinese shares.

That doesn’t bode well for the next round of company earnings, which kicks into gear this week.

CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) and Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) are expected to report earnings after the close on Tuesday.

Crude flirted with a break below $30 per barrel on Tuesday. Brent crude, a benchmark for global oils, fell 99 cents to $30.89 a barrel in London.

GAME OVER: Video game retailer GameStop sank 8.1 percent, the worst performer in the S&P 500 index. Energy companies erased a drop of as much as 2.3 per cent as crude trimmed its slide. The stock lost $1.54 to $3.01. Driving the gains was another stable day for the stock market in mainland China, where the Shanghai composite rose 0.2%, rebounding from a loss of more than 5% Monday. The sector remains down 8.5% this year. The U.S. benchmark’s losses since the start of 2016 still leave it more than 9 percent below its all-time high set in May.

The yuan traded in Hong Kong temporarily erased its gap with the Shanghai exchange rate, after it widened to a record 2.9 percent last week.

Horizon Pharma jumped after the drugmaker raised its 2016 sales outlook as the group is expected to close the Crealta Holdings acquisition this week.

General Motors jumped 2.5 percent, while Ford slipped 2.5 percent after the automakers gave contrasting profit forecasts for the year.

Last week’s 5.3 per cent fall, the FTSE’s biggest weekly drop since August, followed China’s move to weaken the yuan, which rattled global markets.

European stocks opened higher, with France’s CAC 40 rising 0.5 per cent to 4,333.57.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 1.8 per cent to its lowest since late 2011.

The absence of Tokyo for a holiday only made liquidity even harder to come by, heightening volatility. The stock dropped 72 cents to US$7.28.

Oil rose 0.7 per cent to $30.67 a barrel in NY, after its attempt to bounce back after tumbling below that level on Tuesday for the first time in 12 years was initially foiled.