Stock markets up over rise in oil prices, gains in some European banking shares
Brent crude oil prices hit a four-month high on Tuesday after reports of an agreement among two major producers to freeze output, boosting energy stocks, even as the U.S. dollar was having its strongest session in three weeks.
Crude prices rose to bring gains over the past three sessions to more than 10 percent, after Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a diplomatic source in Doha saying Russia and Saudi Arabia reached consensus about an oil output freeze ahead of a producers’ meeting on April 17.
On Wall Street, energy sector shares posted the most gains and the S&P 500 hit its highest level of the session shortly after the output freeze headlines.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 156.04 points, or 0.89 percent, to 17,712.45, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 15.84 points, or 0.78 percent, to 2,057.83 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 29.55 points, or 0.61 percent, to 4,862.95.
The FTSEurofirst index of 300 major European companies .FTEU3 rose 0.6 percent, also led by energy names. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS added 0.5 percent, its fourth gain in the past five sessions.
Earlier, Japanese shares .N225 rose 1.1 percent after a rally in the yen against the dollar JPY= stalled on Tuesday, lifting shares of exporters.
The U.S. dollar also strengthened against the euro EUR= for only the third session in the last 12. The dollar index ticked up 0.13 percent, still its strongest session in three weeks.
Currencies of commodity-based economies like the Canadian dollar also rose. Against the greenback, the loonie hit its strongest level in nine months.
