United States stocks rally as oil rebounds

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.14 per cent at 17,528.47 and the S&P 500 lost 0.22 per cent to 2,056.51.

The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index rose 0.1% for the three-month period ending in October, for a 5.5% yearly gain. Apple rose 1.8 percent, Microsoft 1.1 percent and Google parent Alphabet 1.9 percent.

The energy sector was the worst-performing sector in the broad Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index in 2015, sporting a loss of almost 24% with one trading day left in the year, according to data from Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The Dow is down 102.09 points, or 0.6 per cent. The JPX-Nikkei Index 400 edged up 0.2 percent to 13,951.93. The Nasdaq 100 Index surged 1.7 percent, taking its 2015 gain to 11 percent.

Trading volume was about half the daily average of about 9 million.

Wall Street closed slightly lower on Thursday, dragged down by energy stocks. Financial markets in the U.S., Europe and Japan will be closed on Friday for the New Year’s holiday.

Cardillo added that the market could add to gains if consumer confidence data came in as expected.

Investor sentiment this year has seesawed between optimism that the economy is strengthening enough to handle higher borrowing costs to concern that a slowdown in China will damp global growth.

In Asia, stocks erased early gains on Wednesday, as weakness in Chinese stocks continued and investors turned cautious following renewed selling in recently battered crude oil futures.

Six out of 10 S&P sectors were lower, with consumer discretionary up 0.26 per cent and leading gainers thanks to a 1.87 per cent rise in Amazon.com. Southwestern Energy Co. tumbled 5.2 percent, while Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Devon Energy Corp. fell at least 3.3 percent.

Fairchild Semiconductor rose 3.4 percent after it received a revised offer from the Party G Group, with new terms on termination fees if the takeover fails to secure regulatory approvals.

Banks rebounded after two days of declines.

The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery moved down 1.27 USA dollars to settle at 36.6 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for February delivery decreased 1.33 dollars to close at 36.46 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Shares of Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) fell as much as 1.1% and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) dropped 1.3% in premarket trading.