MARKET REPORT

After a 2014 worst, stocks hit best

Trader Kevin Lodewick (right) works Tuesday on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A positive retail sales report and growth in technology stocks led to index gains Tuesday, analysts said.
Trader Kevin Lodewick (right) works Tuesday on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A positive retail sales report and growth in technology stocks led to index gains Tuesday, analysts said.

NEW YORK - The stock market bounced back Tuesday with its best day of 2014, a day after logging its worst performance of the year.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 19.68 points, or 1.1 percent, to 1,838.88, erasing most of its loss from Monday and marking its biggest gain since Dec. 18.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 115.92 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 16,373.86, just below its high of the day. The Nasdaq composite rose 69.71 points, or 1.7 percent, to 4,183.02.

Technology stocks led the gains as Wall Street analysts raised their assessments of Intel and electronics company Jabil Circuit.

A report on retail sales also added to investor confidence. Excluding spending on autos, gasoline and building supplies, sales increased 0.7 percent in December, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. That was better than the increase of 0.4 percent forecast by economists.

While the rise in December sales was modest, it helped ease investors’ concerns about the health of the economy after Friday’s surprisingly weak jobs report.

“This is a preview of what 2014 will be like … it’s going to be more volatile than it was last year,” said Andres Garcia-Amaya, a global market strategist at JPMorgan Funds. “The market’s bouncing back and saying the world’s not ending; things are pointing in the right direction.”

Technology companies rose 1.9 percent, the most of the 10 sectors that make up the S&P 500.

Intel climbed $1.01, or 4 percent, to $26.51 after analysts at JPMorgan raised their rating on the chip maker’s stock and predicted that demand for personal computers will stabilize this year and that the company’s chief executive will focus on improving margins and returns.

Jabil Circuit jumped $1.30, or 7.8 percent, to $17.89 after Goldman Sachs recommended buying the stock of the electronics company, forecasting that its earnings next year could be better than most analysts are expecting.

Stocks have had a sluggish start to the year after an exceptional 2013. The S&P 500 is down 0.5 percent in January after climbing nearly 30 percent last year.

Despite the slow start, many investors remain optimistic that stocks will end this year higher as well and that the current slump will be a pause rather than a collapse.

“Valuations have certainly been pushed higher, so [stocks] are no longer cheap,” said Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “But we would contend that they are still fair.”

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.87 percent from 2.83 percent Monday as investors sold bonds.

In commodities trading, the price of oil climbed 79 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $92.59. Gold fell $5.70, or 0.5 percent, to $1,245.40 an ounce.

Among other stocks making big moves:

Time Warner Cable shares rose $3.60, or 2.7 percent, to $136 after Charter Communications intensified its pursuit of the company. Charter said Monday that it would take an offer directly to shareholders if needed after getting rebuffed by Time Warner Cable’s management.

Shares of Intuitive Surgical jumped $26.81, or 6.8 percent, to $419.88 after the company said it will report revenue in the fourth quarter that is higher than Wall Street analysts are forecasting, as procedures performed with its robotic da Vinci system increased.

GameStop shares plunged $9.01, or 20 percent, to $36.31 after the world’s largest video game retailer gave a profit forecast that fell below Wall Street’s expectations for its crucial holiday quarter, despite higher-than-expected sales.

Business, Pages 26 on 01/15/2014

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