US stocks rally; Alibaba +7.5pc

May 07:

NEW YORK: US stocks pushed higher Thursday as oil prices cooled and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba soared on strong sales.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 82.08 points (0.46 percent) to 17,924.06.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 7.85 (0.38 percent) at 2,088.00, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 25.90 (0.53 percent) to 4,945.54.

US crude prices fell back below $60 a barrel Thursday. Spiking oil prices contributed to a 1.6 percent loss in the S&P 500 in the prior two sessions.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities, said a drop in US Treasury bond yields also eased worries.

"If you look at some of the turmoil you saw in the market during the last few days, a couple of factors have settled down," Hogan said.

Alibaba jumped 7.5 percent as sales rose 45 percent to $2.81 billion in the quarter ending March 31. The company named chief operating officer Daniel Zhang as chief executive, replacing Jonathan Lu.

Yahoo, which has a stake in Alibaba, rose 5.3 percent.

Online listings and review site Yelp surged 23 percent on reports it enlisted investment bankers to approach potential buyers of the company.

Tesla Motors gained 2.8 percent as it said it was on track to deliver 55,000 cars this year, even as it reported a loss of $154.2 million for the quarter ending March 31.

Whole Foods Market sank 9.7 percent on worries about slowing sales after second-quarter earnings rose 11.3 percent to $158 million. Comparable store sales came in 3.6 percent higher, below the 5.2 percent growth expected, said Jefferies.

Online travel site Priceline fell 4.0 percent after it warned that the strong dollar would "significantly reduce" earnings in the second quarter.

Twenty-First Century Fox lost 2.7 percent as net income for the quarter ending March 31 fell seven percent to $975 million. The year-ago results were boosted by the 2014 Super Bowl broadcast. The American football game was not broadcast on Fox this year.

Oil-linked stocks fell. Dow member ExxonMobil shed 0.7 percent, while oil services titan Halliburton lost 2.8 percent.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.18 percent from 2.24 percent Wednesday night, while the 30-year dropped to 2.91 percent from 2.99 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.

Source:http://www.brecorder.com/markets/equity/americas/241379-us-stocks-rally;-alibaba-%2075pc.html