Wednesday's early trade: stocks climb as worries over Italy's politics ease

US stocks advanced on Wednesday, with gains in energy and banking shares aiding the recovery from a steep selloff in the previous session due to concerns over Italy's political crisis. Italy's two anti-establishment parties- the 5-Star Movement and League - renewed efforts to form a government, raising hopes that Europe's third largest economy could avoid a new election.
The news restored some calm to the US equity markets, which saw steepest one-day percentage decline in a month on Tuesday on worries about the stability of the euro zone. "It's a rebound from yesterday on hopes that there may be some agreement on forming a government. But these kind of perceptions are going to bounce back and forth," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg.
Crude oil prices rose more than 2 percent, supported by tight supplies and forecast of lower US inventories despite expectations Opec and its allies will pump more in the second half of 2018. The S&P energy index jumped 2.7 percent, providing the biggest boost to the S&P 500. At 11:30 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 188.89 points, or 0.78 percent, at 24,550.34, the S&P 500 was up 25.41 points, or 0.94 percent, at 2,715.27 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 59.59 points, or 0.81 percent, at 7,456.18.
Bank stocks, which were the worst hit on Tuesday, recovered with the S&P financial index rising 1.2 percent. Cloud-based business software maker Salesforce.com rose 2.3 percent, while computer and printer maker HP Inc jumped 3.5 percent after raising full-year profit forecasts.