GS Goldman Sachs Group Inc

By David Hodari and Corrie Driebusch 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Tuesday's trading 0.6% higher, recovering ground from sharp losses late last week.

Technology, financial and energy stocks were driving U.S. stocks' gains on Tuesday, sending the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite 0.7% higher.

"The moves last week caught us off-guard in terms of the market's newfound sensitivity to the global economic slowdown theme," said John Brady, managing director at futures brokerage R.J. O'Brien & Associates. He said he remains cautiously confident in U.S. stocks, however.

"The United States is not an island; it will slow as the global economy slows. But I think we have a buffer," he said.

Banking stocks outperformed in afternoon trading after taking a beating late last week, with Goldman Sachs rising 1.2% and JPMorgan Chase up 1%.

Shares in energy companies helped lift the Dow industrials higher, with Exxon rising 1.3% and Chevron gaining 1%, as oil prices continued to rise following a difficult end to 2018. U.S. crude-oil futures rose 1.9% to $59.94 a barrel in recent trading, putting its year-to-date gains at more than 30%.

Investors' and strategists' recent jitters over the prospects for global growth relating to a raft of downbeat economic data have prompted a softening in central-bank rhetoric in recent weeks, a move that has stung bank stocks.

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasurys was nearly unchanged at 2.418%. A recent slip in 10-year U.S. Treasury yields below the level of three-month Treasury bills has been seen by some investors as foreshadowing a potential U.S. economic downturn.

With 2019's first financial quarter ending later this week, investors are looking ahead to the next three months.

"It's been a good quarter for equities, fixed income and credit, which really raises the bar to repeat that kind of performance in the second quarter and brings us back to the point that equities and fixed-income rallying does not, in principle, make sense if the global economy is slowing," said Kenneth Broux, senior strategist at Société Générale.

French gross-domestic-product figures on Tuesday matched market expectations. Growth figures from the U.S. are due Thursday, and from the U.K., Spain and Canada on Friday. Some strategists remained optimistic that the gloomy figures of the first months of the year will prove temporary.

"When you drill down into core inflation, you're seeing robust demand, robust wage growth, healthy unemployment data and generally underlying growth remains pretty healthy," said Benjamin Jones, senior multiasset strategist at State Street.

In Germany, the yield on 10-year government bonds shrugged off a weaker-than-expected consumer-confidence survey released Tuesday. That weak survey reading chimed with similarly downbeat eurozone purchasing managers index figures at the end of last week.

Germany's DAX index rose 0.6%, while the broader Stoxx Europe 600 index climbed 0.8%.

U.K. assets remained little changed despite lawmakers' decision late Monday to wrest control of the Brexit process away from Prime Minister Theresa May.

The gains in Europe followed more mixed trading in Asia. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average climbed 2.2% thanks to buoyant pharmaceuticals and transportation stocks, while mainland China stocks fell ahead of the resumption of cabinet-level trade negotiations between the U.S. and China.

Write to David Hodari at David.Hodari@dowjones.com and Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 26, 2019 16:21 ET (20:21 GMT)

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