Wall Street rose Monday while investors brace themselves

Traders work on the floor of the NYSE

(Reuters) – Wall Street rose on Monday, with the Dow touching highs not seen since July, as Hasbro and Disney lifted the consumer discretionary sector while investors braced for a flurry of quarterly earnings reports through the week.

Chevron climbed 1.25 percent as crude prices steadied from earlier losses caused by the collapse of talks among major producers to tackle a stubborn global surplus.

A recent rebound in oil and signs that the U.S. economy was recovering have helped stocks rally from a steep selloff earlier this year that had pushed the S&P 500 down as much as 10.5 percent.

The index is now up 2.3 percent in 2016 and only about 2 percent short of its all-time high, while the Dow breached 18,000 for the first time since July 21.

That came despite bleak expectations for first-quarter earnings reports, many of which flow in this week. Earnings of S&P 500 companies are seen falling 7.7 percent on average, with the energy sector weighing heavily, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Investors will closely watch IBM and Netflix as they hand in their reports after the bell. Netflix was down 3.2 percent.

“This is a market where beating and exceeding does not guarantee you a higher stock price, but missing guarantees you’re going to get killed on the downside,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa. “That’s the sign of a fragile market.”

At 2:31 pm, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.49 percent at 17,985.53 points and the S&P 500 had gained 0.52 percent to 2,091.54. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.34 percent to 4,955.09.

All of the 10 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 1.2 percent rise in energy. The consumer discretionary sector was up 0.84 percent, led by Hasbro. The toymaker jumped 5.7 percent after reporting better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue.

Disney rose 2.7 percent after “Jungle Book” dominated the weekend box office, grossing more than $100 million.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,066 to 913. On the Nasdaq, 1,925 issues rose and 888 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 19 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 52 new highs and 16 lows.

(Additional reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

CNNMoney: Trading was halted 1,200 times Monday

The selling on Wall Street was so dramatic Monday that it triggered unprecedented emergency freezes on stocks.

Stocks and exchange-traded funds were automatically halted more than 1,200 times, according to Nasdaq.

The high level of trading pauses highlights just how extreme the selloff was in a short span of time. Fears about China’s economic slowdown caused the Dow to plummet over 1,000 points when the market opened. The Dow ended down 588 points, its worst decline since August 2011.

CNNMoney – CNNMoney: Trading was halted 1,200 times Monday

Historic Drop on Wall Street at Opening Bell

Investors are bracing for an incredibly ugly and volatile day on Wall Street today as China closed to their own version of a “Black Monday” and the Dow dived over 900 points at the opening bell.    Oil Prices plunged below $40 a barrel. At this moment we are down 6% and have lost 1000 points on the DOW.  

Experts agree that the market in China, the uncertainty on the interest rate and the effect of cheap oil are causing this slide.  Many are stating that there must be something more happening to cause this type of market descent.  

China’s market last dropped this low in 2007.  And is down more than 40% in the last two weeks.  This is being called a Market Crash by most of the financial community.  

Stocks Fall on Concerns over Oil Prices, Fed Minutes

The stock markets fell more than one percent under pressures from low oil prices and the uncertainly from the Federal Reserve over the raising of interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was over 300 points lower Thursday after a 163 point drop on Wednesday.  The pace means the DJIA will have its worst day since losing 350 points on June 29th.

Markets around the world were impacted as well.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.9%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Hong off 1.8%, the Shanghai composite in mainland China down 3.4%, Germany’s DAX off 2.3% and the CAC 40 in Paris off 2.1%.

“I think the oil and the geopolitical problems are the real problems for the market because we’re looking at lower global economic growth, and lower global growth is going to weigh on the U.S. as well,” Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, told CNBC.

Some analysts, however, say that the movement by China last week to devalue the Yuan over two consecutive days is also impacting the market.

“There is heightened uncertainty that began with yuan devaluation last week, while overall China’s growth is slowing faster than thought. This is weighing on confidence,” Randy Frederick, managing director of trading & derivatives at Schwab Center for Financial Research, told CNBC.

(Update 8/20/1015 at 4:48PM CT: Since this story was originally reported the dow has dropped 2% and is currently at 358.04.)