Crude oil climbed above $34 per barrel to send the markets soaring to a sharply higher open with the Dow jumping 210 points to 16,279. Nasdaq leaped 55 points to 4,562.
On the upside
Axiall (NYSE: AXLL) rejected Westlake Chemical's $1.41 billion offer to buy the plastics maker.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) reported higher second quarter earnings that surpassed analyst expectations as the company's cloud business grew.
Third quarter earnings climbed for Sony (NYSE: SNE).
On the downside
Fourth quarter earnings for Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) more than doubled but the results fell far short of analyst expectations.
Third quarter earnings edged up for Quality Systems (Nasdaq: QSII) but revenue slipped to fall short of expectations.
Eastman Chemical (NYSE: EMN) reported higher fourth quarter earnings but revenue fell short of expectations and the company forecast 2016 earnings below estimates.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 1 on the NYSE and by 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 gained 13 points to 1,906 Bitcoin slipped to $380.
