Tuesday's Stock Market Close: US Equities Rally In Late Trading, Dow Jumps 1,167, Oil, Yields Surge

U.S. stocks rallied on Tuesday in volatile trading as investors mulled over the pros and cons of potential stimulus measures to fight the economic impact of coronavirus.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1,167.14 points to 25,018.16 while the S&P 500 rose 135.67 points to 2,882.23 and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 393.58 points to 8,344.25.

Dow logged its third biggest-day point gain in history, one day after suffering its largest ever one-day point drop.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 6.55 billion shares with 2,273 issues advancing, 13 setting new highs, and 744 declining, with 685 setting new lows.

Active movers were led by Bank of America (BAC), Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) and Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO),

While President Donald Trump has floated the idea of a payroll tax cut and other measures to deal with the virus, on Tuesday afternoon Trump and his top officials left a meeting with Senate Republicans with no specific policy proposals.

"If the administration has decided on the specific tools they didn't share that with us," said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). "It's clear the administration is seriously considering a fiscal stimulus. What that will be I don't think anybody's decided yet. You'll not be surprised to learn that senators had plenty of suggestions, particularly when it comes to spending money."

However, a White House official later told CNBC one of the proposals Trump suggested was eliminating thw payroll tax rate for the rest of the year.

Nonetheless traders appeared to welcome any such talk of stimulus proposals

“Fiscal stimulus is the antidote that can bridge the gap between what was happening before coronavirus and what will happen after it,” said Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist for Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management. “It certainly can’t cure the virus, but it can help contain some of the economic fallout. Today’s trading activity is the market trying to gauge whether the stimulus is going to be sufficient.”

On Tuesday, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said the Moscow government has not ruled further talks with The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to stabilize chaotic oil markets.

As of Tuesday, there were at least 118,000 coronavirus cases around the world and at least 4,260 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

Japan introduced a second package of measures valued at about $4 billion to deal with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. These measures will focus on helping small and mid-sized companies.

Overnight in Asia, markets rebounded. China’s Shanghai Composite climbed 1.82%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.41%, and Japan’s Nikkei-225 rose 0.85%.

In Europe markets gave up early gains to finish mostly lower as Britain’s FTSE-100 edged up 0.05%, France’s CAC-40 dropped 1.52% and Germany’s DAX fell 1.29%.

Crude oil futures surged 10.99% at $34.55 per barrel, Brent crude climbed 1.42% at $37.75. Gold futures fell 1.83%.

The euro fell 1.17% at $1.1305 while the pound sterling slipped 1.62% at $1.2909.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury surged 49.9% to 0.748% while yield on the 30-year Treasury soared 30.1% to 1.219%.