| Stocks on Wall Street ended in the black on Wednesday, bouncing back from losses in the previous session as worries about fresh elections in Italy receded and as rising oil prices boosted the energy sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 1.3% at 24,667.78, the Nasdaq rose 0.9% to 7,462.01 and the S&P 500 climbed 1.3% to 2,724.01. Despite the upbeat finish, IG market analyst Joshua Mahony said there is little to suggest that this is anything other than a temporary pause. "The Italian political crisis is likely to worsen before it improves, with a lot more uncertainty for markets, and thus from a European standpoint there is little room for complacency. "Much of today’s improved sentiment seems to be down to a shift in focus away from politics and towards economic data ahead of Friday’s US jobs report. While the relationship between the ADP and headline payrolls figures is unreliable at best, dollar bulls will hope that todays’ poor ADP figure bears no resemblance to Friday’s release. With the May ADP payrolls figure falling to an eight-month low of 178,000, expectations of a rise in Friday’s figure could be misplaced." Investors also largely shrugged off the latest tensions between the US and China, after President Trump renewed his threat to impose $50bn worth of tariffs on Chinese imports "shortly" after mid-June, with a final list of the specific imports due to be published on 15 June. In addition, restrictions on Chinese investments will be announced on 30 June. Analysts at Rabobank said: "This move is somewhat of a surprise since the US and China have been in talks about reaching a trade deal, which appeared to be progressing well. Perhaps President Trump caved to the mounting criticism on the contents of the agreement. Either way, the chances of no tariffs being raised at all seem slimmer at this point." Energy-related shares racked up solid gains, with Exxon Mobil and Chevron both gushing higher as oil prices rallied on the back of a report suggesting that OPEC could extend supply cuts through the end of the year. West Texas Intermediate was up 2.4% to $68.38 a barrel and Brent crude was 3% firmer at $77.69. In corporate news, shares of Michael Kors ended down 11% after it posted a disappointing outlook and DSW slumped 5.6% after its full-year profit guidance fell short, but Salesforce closed up 1.9% after its quarterly earnings beat expectations. On the data front, private sector employment in the US grew less than expected in May, according to the latest figures from ADP. Employers added 178,000 jobs this month, missing expectations for a 190,000 increase but up from a revised 163,000 gain in April. This was revised down from 204,000. Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said: "The hot job market has cooled slightly as the labour market continues to tighten. Healthcare and professional services remain a model of consistency and continue to serve as the main drivers of growth in the services sector and the broader labour market as well." Elsewhere, the US economy grew at a softer pace than originally reported throughout the first quarter of the year, according to the Commerce Department, principally because of a slower build-up in inventories. Gross domestic product was trimmed to an annual 2.2% pace from 2.3%, just lower than analysts' projections of a flat reading. In other news, core PCE, which strips out volatile food and energy prices and is the Fed's preferred inflation metric, increased 2.3%, down from the initial estimate of 2.5%. Lastly, growth US April preliminary wholesale inventories came in unchanged at 0.0% versus a month-on-month gain of 0.5% projected by analysts, while the Goods Trade Balance deficit shrank to $68.19bn in April, which was below economists' forecasts. | 
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