Wall Street gains as healthcare stocks rally, oil prices fall

NEW YORK: Wall Street's main indexes climbed on Tuesday (Oct 20) as healthcare stocks hit a record high and easing oil prices boosted investor sentiment, while markets continued to stabilise following last week's technology-led selloff.

Brent crude was trading 1.3 per cent lower, reversing course after touching a near five-month high earlier in the day. 

Most S&P 500 constituents gained, with healthcare .SPXHC and financials .SPSY rising 1.8 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.

Energy led the losses, while an about 2 per cent decline in Meta Platforms pulled the communication services .SPLRCL sector down.

The market extended Monday's rebound, when the S&P 500 and Nasdaq climbed as investors bought the dip in technology stocks after last week's sharp selloff, fueled in part by concerns over CoreWeave's debt load and the cost of financing the AI buildout.

AI-related shares were flat to higher on Tuesday, after showing weakness in premarket trading. CoreWeave was last up 1.6 per cent, while chip gauge Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX rose 0.4 per cent.

"You're seeing some strength in some high-value stocks and the Dow, and so that's helping to sort of lift the overall index," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.

"Concerns about what's going on as far as semiconductors, that's still there and AI-related names are down, but for the most part, the rest of the market is seeing a bit of a nice rebound."

Elsewhere, shares of South Korean AI infrastructure company Elice Group tumbled nearly 30 per cent in their market debut, slipping below their IPO price after the company raised 201.1 billion won (US$151.12 million) in its offering.

At 10:31am ET (22:31pm, Singapore time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 617.62 points, or 1.22 per cent, to 52,599.29. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 53.99 points, or 0.70 per cent, to 7,744.72, while the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 154.58 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 26,585.47.