Wall Street rebounds from worst day of 2013 on economic data, gold prices

The main U.S. stock indices rose more than one percent Tuesday, rebounding from their biggest one- day drop this year in the previous day, as upbeat economic data and a recovery of gold prices reduced investors' worries. Wall Street recouped more than half of Monday's losses, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average notching the biggest gain in seven weeks and the S&P 500 logging the second largest gain this year. The blue-chip Dow surged 157.58 points, or 1.08 percent, to 14, 756.78 points. The S&P 500 Index climbed 22.21 points, or 1.43 percent, to 1,574.57 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 48.14 points, or 1.50 percent, to 3,264.43. "We are seeing persistent demand for equities," BlackRock's Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said Tuesday iWall Street plunged on Monday, weighed down by diving commodity prices and a lackluster China growth rate in the first quarter. Many analysts believed that Monday's tumble in the stock market was just a technical correction and Wall Street would go higher at the end of this year. On the economic front, new residential construction in March jumped 7.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,036, 000, the highest level since June 2008, the U.S. Commerce Department reported. The figure was much higher than analysts' forecast of a 930,000 rate. Meanwhile, the U.S. Consumer Price Index dropped 0.2 percent in March, indicative of eased inflation pressures, the Labor Department said Tuesday. While the so-called core CPI excluding volatile food and energy rose 0.1 percent, lower than expected. Separately, industrial production rose 0.4 percent in March after having increased 1.1 percent in February, the Federal Reserve reported Tuesday, adding that for the first quarter as a whole, output moved up at an annual rate of 5.0 percent, its largest gain since the first quarter of 2012. Two Dow components, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson, posted their better-than-expected first-quarter profits before the opening bell. The two company's shares surged 5.69 percent and 2. 12 percent, respectively, pushing the Dow higher. Goldman Sachs said its profits increased to 2.26 billion U.S. dollars or 4.29 dollars a share in the first quarter, up from the year-ago period, beating market estimates. On other markets, gold for June delivery rose 26.30 dollars, or 1.9 percent, to settle at 1,387.40 dollars an ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures on Monday suffered the biggest on-day drop since 1980s after diving 9. 3 percent. Meanwhile, oil price fluctuated on Tuesday as the International Monetary Fund lowered its global economic growth forecast in 2013 to 3.3 percent, 0.2 percentage point lower than its earlier estimate in January. Light, sweet crude for May delivery gained 1 cent to settle at 88.72 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent for June delivery was down 72 cents, or 0.71 percent, to close at 99.91 dollars a barrel. The U.S. dollar slipped against most of major currencies on Tuesday on speculations that the Federal Reserve may continue the current monetary easing policies. The greenback dropped to a seven- week low against the euro. In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3191 dollars from 1.3040 dollars of the previous session and the British pound climbed to 1.5370 dollars from 1.5276 dollars. The Australian dollar increased to 1.0381 dollars from 1.0323 dollars. The dollar bought 97.43 Japanese yen, lower than 97.28 in the previous session.