Stock rally ends Dow’s 8-day slide

Banks and other financial companies led U.S. stock indexes sharply higher Tuesday, snapping an eightday losing streak for the Dow Jones industrial average — its longest slide in more than five years.

The rally was broad, with materials and industrial companies among the biggest gainers. Energy stocks jumped as oil prices rose.

The market got a boost from data showing that U.S. consumer confidence hit its highest level since 2000.

Investor optimism that Congress and the White House are pivoting their focus to tax cuts and other business-friendly policy proposals also helped send the market higher, said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade.

Bond prices edged down. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 2.42% from 2.38%.

Trading got off to a downbeat start Tuesday but livened up when the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose this month to its highest level in more than 16 years.

Traders also got encouragement from the Standard & Poor's CoreLogic CaseShiller home price index, which showed that in January, U.S. home prices rose at the fastest pace in more than two years. Beazer Homes USA notched the biggest gain among home builders, climbing 3.3% to $12.06.

Several firms reported improved results or outlooks, which also helped put traders in a buying mood.

Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants jumped 9.3% to $82.62, the biggest gain in the S&P 500, after it posted strong quarterly results and said it will buy the Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen chain for $780 million.

Red Hat climbed 5.2% to $86.48 after the open-source software company reported strong sales and solid guidance for the current quarter.

Carnival rose 0.7% to $59.26, an all-time high, after the cruise line operator served up solid first-quarter results and a better-thanexpected estimate for the second quarter.

General Motors rose 2.4% to $35.56 after its board rejected a proposal to split GM stock into two classes.

Meanwhile, Depomed sank 4.5% to $14.23 after Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) asked it and other makers of opioid pain drugs for marketing information, sales records and studies.

The euro fell to $1.0808 from $1.0868. The dollar rose to 111.09 yen from 110.57 yen.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.3% to $48.37 a barrel. Brent crude climbed 1.1% to $51.33 a barrel. Natural gas rose 4 cents to $3.10 per 1,000 cubic feet, wholesale gasoline rose 2 cents to $1.64 a gallon and heating oil rose a penny to $1.52 a gallon.

Gold slipped 10 cents to $1,255.60 an ounce. Silver rose 14 cents to $18.25 an ounce. Copper rose 4 cents to $2.68 a pound.