Both the Dow and S&P500 extended their rally into a fourth consecutive session as investors digested news of surprise crude production cuts by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their key producing allies (a group known as OPEC+) that saw oil prices soar and potentially muddy the inflation picture - Dow gained +327-points or +0.98%. Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group Inc was the leading index performer, rallying +4.57% after the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Friday (31 March) announced updated payment rates. The agency said that Medicare Advantage plans would see an increase in revenue of more than 3% from 2023 to 2024. The advance notice of the payment scale had pegged the increase at just over 1%. Separately, Chevron Corp gained +416%, tracking strong crude prices. Walmart Inc (+0.84%) convenes a two-day investor meeting beginning tonight AEST . The broader S&P500 added +0.37%, with Energy (up +4.91%) the clear outperformer and leading seven of the eleven primary sectors higher. Marathon Oil Corp jumped +9.93% and Conocophillips +9.26%. Tesla Inc fell -6.12% after reporting on Sunday (2 April) that it delivered 422,875 vehicles in the first quarter, just shy of the 432K units projected by analysts. The technology centric Nasdaq eased -0.27%. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 dipped -0.01%.
