Stocks claw back lost ground with another gain

NEW YORK >> U.S. stocks rose for the fourth day in a row Tuesday as they continued to recover the ground they lost last week. Major indexes approached record highs again.

Most of the gains went to banks, which surged as bond yields jumped. That will allow them to charge higher rates on loans. Banks took steep losses last Wednesday, when stocks had their worst day since September. Scientific instrument companies and drugmakers also rose. However auto parts companies were hammered after poor third-quarter results from AutoZone and home builders fell after sales of new homes sank in April.

The four-day rally has restored most of the market’s losses and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index is almost back to record highs.

The S&P 500 added 4.40 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,398.42. The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 43.08 points, or 0.2 percent, to 20,937.91. The Nasdaq composite rose 5.09 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,138.71. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks gained 3.84 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,380.98.

Bond prices turned lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.28 percent from 2.25 percent. That helped bank stocks like JPMorgan Chase, which gained $1.06, or 1.3 percent, to $85.76 and BB&T, which rose 63 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $43.03.

Auto parts retailer AutoZone took its worst oneday loss in eight and a half years as high costs and lower sales at older locations hurt its results. Its stock fell $78.09, or 11.8 percent, to $581.40. O’Reilly Automotive sank $8.28, or 3.3 percent, to $240.18 and Advance Auto Parts gave up $6.71, or 4.6 percent, to $140.66. All have tumbled this year as investors worried about slowing car sales.

Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software jumped after its fourth-quarter profit and sales surpassed analysts’ expectations. The company’s games include the “Grand Theft Auto” “NBA2K” and “Sid Meier’s Civilization” franchises. Take-Two stock jumped $3.79, or 5.5 percent, to $72.83, and it has doubled over the last year.

Rival Activision Blizzard added 68 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $57.80 and Electronic Arts rose 62 cents to $109.01.

Home improvement retailer Lowe’s lost $1.71, or 2 percent, to $82.34 and Home Depot also slipped.

Nokia climbed after the company said it settled its legal disputes with Apple. The two companies said they will work together and that Nokia will get a cash payment from Apple. The Finnish company was once the biggest cellphone maker in the world, but it sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2014 and is now a network infrastructure provider. Its U.S. shares rose 33 cents, or 5.3 percent, to $6.54.

Fiat Chrysler sank after the U.S. government sued the automaker, saying some of diesel pickup trucks and Jeep SUVs included software that cheated emissions tests. The Department of Justice said the software let the vehicles’ engines emit more pollution on the road than during Environmental Protection Agency lab testing.

Fiat Chrysler stock lost 44 cents, or 4.1 percent, to $10.32.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil added 34 cents to $51.47 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, picked up 28 cents to $54.15 a barrel in London.

Wholesale gasoline remained at $1.66 a gallon and heating oil finished where it started, at $1.61 a gallon. Natural gas sank 11 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $3.22 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold fell $5.90 to $1,255.50 an ounce. Silver lost 5 cents to $17.14 an ounce. Copper remained at $2.60 a pound.

The dollar rose to 111.76 yen from 111.20 yen. The euro declined to $1.1185 from $1.1234.