Wall Street Up for Second Straight Session in Broad Rally

New York: US stocks rose broadly on Monday, extending Friday's sharp rally as recent uncertainty pertaining to Ukraine and the Middle East appeared to ease, while Priceline rallied on its results.

All ten primary S&P 500 sectors were higher on the day, and more than three-fourths of stocks traded on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were higher on the day.

On Friday, major indexes posted their best day since March on news that Russia was ending military drills near the Ukrainian border, a move seen as indicating Russia would not send troops into Ukraine anytime soon.

Despite that, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he saw a "high probability" that Russia could intervene militarily and that NATO detected no sign that Moscow was pulling back thousands of troops from close to the Ukrainian border.

Investors also monitored Iraq, where the US recently launched air strikes targeting Islamic State fighters marching on the country's Kurdish capital, as well as the unrest between Israel and the Palestinians, who agreed to a new 72-hour ceasefire in Gaza.

"At least for the time being, the situation in Ukraine appears fairly contained," said Eric Teal, chief investment officer at First Citizens Bancshares Inc in Raleigh, North Carolina, adding that "despite some of the military unrest, the Iraqi crisis looks to be going on a more limited scope and not having a significant impact on the commodity market".

US crude futures rose 0.7 per cent to $98.30 per barrel.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 67.49 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 16,621.42.

The S&P 500 gained 12.1 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 1,943.69.

The Nasdaq Composite added 42.81 points, or 0.98 per cent, to 4,413.71.

Priceline Group Inc rose 2.6 per cent to $1,314.98 after the company reported a 26 per cent rise in second-quarter revenue, though it also forecast third-quarter earnings below expectations. Expedia Inc rose 3.9 per cent to $85.79.

Kinder Morgan Inc on Sunday said it would put all its publicly traded units under one roof in a $70 billion deal, an amount including $27 billion in assumed debt. Shares jumped 8.7 per cent to $39.26. Among its units, Kinder Morgan Management surged 23.5 per cent to $95.10 while Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP was up 17 per cent to $93.99.

MannKind Corp rose 12 per cent to $9.09 after French drug maker Sanofi signed a worldwide licensing agreement with the company worth up to $925 million.

Chiquita Brands International Inc climbed 31 per cent to $13.21 in its biggest one-day advance since its 2002 trading debut after Juice maker Cutrale Group and Brazilian investment firm Safra Group offered to buy the company.

Equities were also boosted as Vice Fed Chair Stanley Fischer said the recoveries in the US and global economies had been "disappointing" thus far, indicating the Fed may not imminently tighten its monetary policy.

"It appears Fischer believes accommodative monetary policy can help keep cyclical slowdown factors from turning structural, which is dovish in the short run but argues for a potentially higher neutral rate than otherwise in the longer run," Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a note to clients.

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