Major Averages Once Again Close At Their Best Levels Of The Day

(RTTNews) - With the price of crude oil once again setting the course for the markets, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. The gains on the day further offset the weakness that was seen last week.

Crude oil for March delivery jumped $3.48 to $53.05 a barrel after surging up $1.33 a barrel on Monday and soaring $3.71 a barrel last Friday.

Extending the upward move seen over the past few sessions, energy stocks moved sharply higher on the day amid the continued increase by the price of crude oil.

Oil service stocks posted particularly strong gains within the energy sector, driving the Philadelphia Oil Service Index up by 4.1 percent. With the gain, the index continued to recover from the four-year closing low it set last Thursday.

Reflecting the strength in the energy sector, the NYSE Arca Oil & Gas Index and the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index also jumped by 3.3 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.

Significant strength was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 4.5 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. AK Steel (AKS), Olympic Steel (ZEUS) and Universal Stainless (USAP) posted standout gains on the day.

Brokerage, railroad, telecom and chemical stocks also moved notably higher over the course of the session, while gold and biotech stocks bucked the uptrend.

The major averages closed at their best levels of the day for the second consecutive session. The Dow soared 305.36 points or 1.8 percent to 17,666.40, the Nasdaq jumped 51.05 points or 1.1 percent to 4,727.74 and the S&P 500 surged up 29.18 points or 1.4 percent to 2,050.03.