Stocks Rise as Oil Rebounds

Stocks Rise as Oil Rebounds

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks rose Monday as energy company shares followed oil prices higher. The market also got a lift from the latest corporate deal news. Precision Castparts led industrial stocks higher after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway agreed to buy the maker of aircraft components.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 23 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,100 as or 12:08 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 214 points, or 1.2 percent, to 17,588. The Nasdaq composite climbed 54 points, or 1.1 percent, to 5,089.

BUFFETT BID: Precision Castparts jumped $37.24, or 19 percent, to $231.10 after Berkshire Hathaway said it was buying the company for about $32.4 billion. Berkshire will pay $235 per share in cash for Precision Castparts' outstanding stock. The deal is valued at about $37.2 billion, including debt.

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RE-ENERGIZED: Energy stocks rebounded on Monday as oil rose following more heavy losses last week. The energy sector has slumped 16 percent in the last three months as oil has dropped back toward its low of the year.

THE QUOTE: About 90 percent of the companies in the S&P 500 have now reported their second-quarter earnings and average earnings for companies in the index are flat for the period. However, that's masking a big slump in energy company earnings. If the energy sector is excluded, profits rose 7.7 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ data.

"Once you start digging into the numbers that only sector that is really messing things up, is energy," said Brad McMillan, Chief Investment Officer for Commonwealth Financial Network. "Everything else is doing pretty well."

LOSING STREAK: The Dow is rebounding from a seven-day losing streak, the longest run of losses for the index in four years. A slump in oil prices and some mixed earnings reports have weighed on the 30-member index. Investors are also speculating that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates next month.

EUROPE'S DAY: France's CAC 40 was up 0.6 percent and Germany's DAX rose 0.8 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.1 percent.

CHINA TRADE: China's trade figures shrank by unexpectedly wide margins in July, showing the world's second-largest economy faces weak demand both at home and abroad. Exports contracted by 8.3 percent over the same month a year earlier, and imports fell 8.1 percent. For the year to date, exports are off 14.6 percent and imports are down 0.8 percent. That increases pressure on Beijing to stimulate domestic growth and to avert politically sensitive job losses in export industries.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was up 61 cents to $44.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 7 percent last week.

BONDS AND CURRENCIES: U.S. government bond prices fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note climbed to 2.22 percent from 2.17 percent on Friday. The dollar rose to 124.56 yen from 124.22 yen on Friday. The euro was little changed at $1.0975.

(KA)

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