US stocks open higher, led by tech and consumer companies

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising in Tuesday morning trading as technology and consumer companies move higher. Energy companies are falling as the price of oil returns some of Monday’s gains. Bond prices continue to rise and yields continue to slip.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average gained 72 points, or 0.4 percent, to 18,167 as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index picked up 7 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,152. The Nasdaq composite rose 30 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,287.

EARLY RISERS: Consumer and technology stocks were off to a strong start. Netflix, which has slumped 16 percent this year, rose $2.21, or 2.3 percent, to $96.77. Car parts retailer AutoZone added $16.85, or 2.2 percent, to $775.73 while e-commerce giant Amazon gained $11.36, or 1.4 percent, to $810.52. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, helped pull tech stocks higher as it rose $9.35, or 1.2 percent, to $812. IBM gained $2.32, or 1.5 percent, to $156.30.

PUT IT ON MY AMEX: American Express gained 84 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $64.26. A federal appeals court ruled late Monday that the company didn’t violate antitrust laws by preventing stores from asking customers to use one credit card over another and steering consumers to another type of payment. On Tuesday, the company said it will buy back as much as 150 million shares of its stock and raised its dividend to 32 cents from 29 cents.

OIL SLIDES: U.S. crude fell $1.13, or 2.5 percent, to $44.80 a barrel in New York. The international standard, Brent crude, lost $1.14, or 2.4 percent, to $46.79 a barrel in London. Oil prices rose 3 percent on Monday. Devon Energy lost $1, or 2.5 percent, to $38.64 and Halliburton sank 89 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $40.49.

ENERGY DEAL: Oil and natural gas company Rice Energy said it will buy Vantage Energy for $2.7 billion including debt. Rice Energy fell $1.84, or 6.8 percent, to $25.30. The Vantage business will become part of a separate Rice company called Rice Midstream Partners, and shares of that partnership rose $1.24, or 5.8 percent, to $22.55.

BONDS: Bond prices continued to rise. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.56 percent from 1.58 percent. Bond yields have been slipping for more than a week as investors waited for the Federal Reserve to make a decision on interest rates.