Stocks climb as oil prices reverse some losses

Stocks rallied Wednesday and oil prices reversed some of their tremendous losses as investors regrouped after two days of turmoil in financial markets.

The S&P 500 climbed more than 2 percent and shares in Europe also were higher.

The benchmark for American crude — which had been hammered out of concern that a glut in supply soon will overwhelm storage facilities — bounced back more than 20 percent.

Investors also rallied behind a handful of earnings updates that showed companies hadn’t done as poorly in the first three months of the year as some had expected.

After Snap, the owner of Snapchat, reported a surge in revenue and user growth, its shares rallied, along with those of Twitter and Facebook, which were among the best performers on the S&P 500.

Similarly, shares of some restaurant chains jumped after Chipotle Mexican Grill said Tuesday that digital and delivery sales driven by the coronavirus crisis soared.

Executives at Chipotle also said the company was preparing to reopen stores, as states lift stay-at-home restrictions. Chipotle was the best performer in the S&P 500 on Wednesday, with a gain of 14 percent.

Investors had other news to consider. The Senate on Tuesday passed a bipartisan $484 billion coronavirus relief package that would replenish a depleted loan program for distressed small businesses and provide funds for hospitals, states and coronavirus testing.

The gains came after the S&P 500 had fallen 3 percent Tuesday, its sharpest decline in three weeks in a drop that had suggested a marked shift in sentiment among investors who otherwise had been buying stocks with every sign of progress in the fight against the novel coronavirus, efforts to reopen the economy or indications that Washington would spend more to help.

That optimism was briefly shattered Monday when oil prices collapsed as energy traders panicked about disappearing demand for petroleum and the fact that there were few places left to store all the crude still being pumped.

But Wednesday, some stability returned to the energy market, with the price of West Texas Intermediate crude rising, and shares of companies in the energy industry rallying.

A federal regulator took another step Wednesday to help mortgage firms dealing with a surge in missed payments from homeowners affected by the pandemic.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said that it would allow those firms to sell newly minted loans on which borrowers have stopped making payments to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.