NEW YORK, Sept 7 (AFP) - Wall Street shares got a lift Tuesday coming out of a holiday weekend from a drop in crude oil prices in New York and upbeat economic news from Japan and Germany.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 80.96 points (0.79 percent) to 10,341.16 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 14.08 points (0.76 percent) to 1,858.56 at the closing bell.
The Standard and Poor's 500 broad-market index advanced 7.67 points (0.69 percent) to 1,121.30.
In a positive for the market, New York crude oil futures fell 68 cents to close at 43.31 dollars a barrel as the threat of Hurricane Frances to oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico retreated.
Analysts said investors came out of the Labor Day weekend in a buying mood.
"Heading into the holiday weekend, many put themselves in very defensive positions should something bad happen," said Marc Pado, US market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.
"Now that we're through the Republican National Convention, I think you just have a little relief pop -- taking off that hedge, maybe putting a lit bit of capital to work after, especially, some of the techs were down."
Pado said encouraging economic news on the global front was contributing to positive sentiment. Japan on Monday released a quarterly survey showing capital spending by Japanese companies rose 10.7 percent from April to June from a year earlier, raising hopes that gross domestic product growth will be revised upward later in the week.
German industrial production, meanwhile, came in at 1.6 percent -- double market forecasts for a 0.8 percent rise.
Ralph Acampora at Wachovia Securities said the market may be ready to resume its upward trend after a long period of churning.
"We have been in the camp of those calling for this frustrating eight-month trading range to be nothing more than an intermediate term correction in a cyclical bull market," he said.
European stock exchanges limped ahead Tuesday, hampered by a weak showing in the pharmaceutical sector.
The London FTSE 100 index ended with a gain of just 0.04 percent at 4,565.6, with investors failing to take advantage of a strong opening on Wall Street.
In Paris the CAC 40 index gained 0.25 percent to close at 3,682.14 despite a sharp fall in drug maker Sanofi-Aventis. In Frankfurt the DAX edged up 0.04 percent to 3,889.04.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares finished on a gain of 0.13 percent at 2,751.87.
Among active US shares, Cisco Systems climbed 30 cents to 19.05 after CIBC World Markets raised its rating on the networking giant.
Elsewhere in technology, Intel remained under pressure after steep losses last week, losing 16 cents to 19.89.
Financial stocks were leading the upside after Hurricane Frances finally left Florida, doing less damage than feared.
Insurers were higher based on the perception that premiums would be raised and business would pick up after the hurricane.
Allstate, the largest property casualty insurer in Florida, climbed 89 cents to 47.91. Chubb added 1.06 to 69.65, Hartford Financial rose 1.11 to 62.34 and Safeco increased 64 cents to 48.41.
Brokerage stocks were also higher. Merrill Lynch rallied 1.29 to 53.13, Ameritrade rose 51 cents to 11.77 and Morgan Stanley jumped 1.72 to 52.72.
Bonds firmed after last week's declines. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond dipped to 4.246 percent from 4.293 percent Friday and that on the 30-year bond to 5.012 percent from 5.061 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.