While you were sleeping: Oil shares rise on supply fears

Wall Street was mixed, as energy shares rose with the price of oil, while shares of AIG dropped on disappointing earnings.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, or 89.39 points, to 17,918.15. It was the second day of trading since Monday pushed the market back into positive territory for 2015 for the first time since July.

The Standard & Poor's 500rose 0.3% to 2109.79, while the Nasdaq Compiste rose 0.4% to 5145.13.

Gains in shares of Chevron and those of DuPoint, up 2.6% and 1.2% respectively, led the Dow higher.

Oil gained as investors focused on concerns about risks to short-term supply from a blockade in Libya and a strike in Brazil.

Crude oil futures in New York rose 3.5% to $US47.76 a barrel. Gold fell 1.7% to $US1170 an ounce.

With an interest rate increase still a possibility this year, investors are eyeing key Federal Reserve officials speaking on Wednesday, including chairwoman Janet Yellen, vice-chairman Stanley Fischer and New York Fed chief William Dudley.

A Commerce Department showed US factory orders slid more than expected, down 1.0% in September, following a downwardly revised 2.1% drop in August.

"It's all about confidence," Teis Knuthsen, chief investment officer at Saxo Bank's private-banking unit in Hellerup, Denmark, told Bloomberg.

"People are still cautious but now they're slowly becoming less sceptical about the global economic recovery. If corporates also start to show strength in this kind of environment, that's all you need to support a year-end rally. For now I still think we need more evidence."

Corporations continued to see value in acquisitions. US-traded shares of Dublin-based King Digital jumped 14% after Activision Blizzard agreed to buy the creator of Candy Crush Saga, a popular video game, for $US5.9 billion.

"It's a very astute investment from a tax point of view," Robert Willens, president of Robert Willens, told Bloomberg.

The latest earnings were mixed. Shares of AIG dropped, last 4.4% weaker, after the insurer reported a quarterly profit that fell short of expectations. So did Archer Daniels Midland, sinking its shares 8.9%.

Meanwhile, US car makers are enjoying a stellar year, posting better-than-expected sales for the month of October.

Indeed, the nation's auto industry is on track for a record year of annual sales, General Motors said, Reuters reported.

GM's total and retail deliveries – sales to individual customers – climbed 16% compared with a year ago, outpacing a very strong industry, and the company's retail market share has now climbed for seven consecutive months versus 2014, the company said in a statement.

US Treasurys declined, pushing yields on the 10-year note three basis points higher to 2.20%.

"We're seeing the market start to reprice after last week's Fed comments," Sean Simko, who manages $US8 billion at SEI Investments Co in Oaks, Pennsylvania, told Bloomberg. "This week you're going to see the market trend a little bit higher in yield."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with a 0.4% gain from the previous close. France's CAC 40 Index added 0.1%, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.2%. Germany's DAX Index fell 0.2%.

(BusinessDesk)