April 23 (UPI) — U.S. stocks rallied on Wednesday after three consecutive days of losses, as oil prices rebounded a bit after sinking to historic lows this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which lost more than 1,200 points Monday and Tuesday, closed up 456.94 points, or 1.99 percent. The S&P 500 climbed 2.29 percent and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.81 percent.
Rises in oil prices influenced the markets Wednesday. International benchmark Brent crude climbed to more than $20 per barrel after an 18 percent decline Tuesday. The June contract for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, rose 19 percent to $13.78 — two days after the May contract, which expired on Tuesday, fell below $0 for the first time in history.
A global decrease in demand has driven oil prices down in recent weeks, as did a dispute between OPEC and Russia concerning production cuts.
Analyst Magnus Nysveen told CNBC the oil market is not out of the woods because demand remains low and a lack of storage space poses a challenge.
“The world is running out of places to store the oil,” he said. “When the supply and demand balance is positive or negative, then you can build or draw from storage. But when the storage gets full, then there is no buffer for this very strong imbalance that we’re seeing.”
The S&P 500’s energy sector rose 3 percent as Halliburton stock soared 10.47 percent, while Diamondback Energy rose 9.04 percent and Noble Energy increased 7.81 percent.
The market rise was also driven by positive quarterly reports as 67 percent of the 84 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings have exceeded analysts’ profit estimates.
Snap Inc. stock skyrocketed 36.63 percent after the social media company released its quarterly earnings report and Chipotle stock rose 12.15 percent.
