US: Oil shares, Apple boost stocks

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks posted solid gains on Monday, lifted by strength in petroleum companies due to higher oil prices and a jump in Apple shares.

Dow member ExxonMobil rose 2.0 per cent and Halliburton 2.2 per cent after US oil prices finished at their highest level of 2016 after Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed support for Opec's push to limit oil output.

Apple rose 1.8 per cent as Samsung Electronics said it was adjusting production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone due to reports that replacement units for devices with exploding lithium-ion batteries are also catching fire.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5 per cent to 18,329.04.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.5 per cent to 2,163.66, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.7 per cent to 5,328.67.

Mylan soared 8.2 per cent after it announced late Friday that it reached a settlement with some regulators to pay US$465 million to resolve accusations that it overbilled the federal Medicaid programme for the EpiPen allergy medication Twitter dived 11.5 per cent following reports that several prospective acquirers of the company are no longer interested in bidding.

One of the most often-mentioned names, Salesforce.com, jumped 5.9 per cent; its shares had been beaten down after news surfaced that it was interested in Twitter.

American Airlines, United Continental and Delta Air Lines all rose more than 2.0 per cent.

Other companies with larger gains included Dow member Boeing, up 1.5 per cent, Google parent Alphabet, up 1.4 per cent, and Tesla Motors, up 2.2 per cent.

AFP