U.S. stocks sharply rose on Tuesday, June 4, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 2.06% to close at 25,332.18, and the S&P 500 advancing 2.14% to finish at 2,803.27.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that the Federal Reserve is monitoring developments on trade policy and "will act as appropriate" to ensure the U.S. economic expansion continues.
A day earlier, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said that a rate cut from the Federal Reserve "may be warranted soon" to help get inflation back to 2%.
Energy stocks generally shadowed the broader market with gains, but utility stocks overall were flat.
Continental Resources Inc. shares spiked 14.91% on more than triple average trading volume to close at $40.23, after unveiling plans to launch an initial share repurchase program of up to $1 billion and start paying a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share. Continental also said it expects to generate about $5 billion of free cash flow at a $60 West Texas Intermediate benchmark price.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. received antitrust clearance for its proposed acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Occidental added 0.75% to settle at $49.69, and Anadarko gained 0.81% to end at $70.60, both on below-average volume.
Enbridge Inc. is conducting a "detailed analysis" of the Minnesota Court of Appeal decision that found an environmental study that supports the regulatory permits to build the C$9 billion Line 3 pipeline were inadequate. Enbridge closed the day 1.42% higher in brisk trading to $35.73.
Among other oil and gas majors, Apache Corp. saw a 5.39% increase in robust trading to finish at $28.34; Williams Cos. Inc. earned 3.05% in about average trading to close at $27.69; Marathon Petroleum Corp. added 2.89% on average volume to settle at $48.49; and Valero Energy Corp. was up 2.57% in below-average trading to conclude at $73.85.
The S&P 500 Energy Sector moved 1.61% higher to 445.06, and the Alerian MLP Index moved up 1.20% to 248.51.
Electric and diversified utilities closed mixed, with the S&P 500 Utilities Sector closing 0.04% up at 297.11.
PG&E Corp. rose 4.75% on average volume to settle at $18.74. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has reportedly hired a financial adviser for its potential acquisition of PG&E Corp.'s distribution assets.
Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp.'s stock price settled 0.43% higher on slim volume to $11.80. The company raised its holdings and now beneficially owns 44,942,065 ordinary shares, or 44.2% of the issued and outstanding shares in Atlantica Yield PLC. Shares of Atlantica Yield finished 0.23% up in strong trading to $21.70.
Vistra Energy Corp. advanced 2.15% in active trading to finish at $24.27. The company priced an upsized offering of $2 billion of senior secured notes.
Also, Clearway Energy Inc. shares picked up 3.00% to $15.13, and Edison International shares advanced 2.87% to $62.32, both in below-average trading. TransAlta Corp. declined 2.41% to C$8.50 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also in below-average trading.
Among solar stocks, JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. rose 8.13% to close at $23.00; SunPower Corp. gained 7.51% to end at $8.16; First Solar Inc. added 3.61% to settle at $60.87; and Canadian Solar Inc. finished up 3.78% to $20.61, mostly in brisk trading.
Market prices and index values are current as of the time of publication and are subject to change.