Wall St. rises; energy leads despite oil weakness

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as a pair of big M&A deals boosted market optimism and helped the market rebound from the broad decline in the previous session, which was the S&P 500's weakest day in a month.

The day's gains were broad, with nine of the 10 primary S&P 500 sectors higher. The only group to fall was telecom .SPLRCL, off 0.6 percent. The sector is considered defensive.

Energy shares were the strong sector on the day despite continued weakness in the price of crude oil. While oil CLc1 fell 1 percent to $68.35 per barrel - extending a decline that has taken the commodity down more than 30 percent from a recent peak - the S&P energy sector .SPNY reversed earlier losses and rose 1.8 percent.

"Valuations have gotten pummeled under the weight of declining crude prices, and it looks like investors are starting to nibble at the space," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. "The group looks extremely oversold, and dividends remain pretty strong."

Among the most active names, Marathon Petroleum (MPC.N) rose 4.7 percent to $95.07 while Valero Energy (VLO.N) was up 3.8 percent at $50.77.

There is currently an inverse correlation of -0.8 between the S&P 500 and crude oil, a dramatic flip from Oct. 20, when the correlation was a positive 0.9, indicating they moved almost perfectly in sync.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp (CY.O) agreed to buy Spansion Inc (CODE.N) in an all-stock deal valued at about $4 billion. Separately, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd said it would buy Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc (AVNR.O) for about $3.5 billion.

Cypress rose 17 percent to $12.20 while Spansion was up 24 percent at $28.38 on heavy volume. Avanir added 13 percent to $16.96.

Biogen Idec Inc (BIIB.O) advanced 5.7 percent to $326.07 as the S&P's biggest advancing stock on favorable data from the Phase III trial of an Alzheimer's drug.

Digital Ally (DGLY.O) jumped 38 percent to $17.75 on heavy volume a day after U.S. President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to spend $263 million over three years on 50,000 body-worn cameras and law enforcement training programs as part of the federal response to civil rights protests in Ferguson, Missouri.

At 11:12 a.m. (1612 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 69.13 points, or 0.39 percent, to 17,845.93, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 9.92 points, or 0.48 percent, to 2,063.36 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 20.87 points, or 0.44 percent, to 4,748.21.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2,136 to 807, for a 2.65-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,908 issues rose and 643 fell for a 2.97-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 was posting 62 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 70 new highs and 64 new lows.

Reuters