While you were sleeping: UPDATED Buffett sees value in Apple, oil rises

Wall Street moved higher, bolstered by a 4% gain in Apple shares [NAS:AAP] after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it owns a stake worth about $US1.1 billion.

Shares in the iPhone maker have fallen from above $US132 to just over $US90 in the past 12 months as sales have disappointed analysts.

A further rise in oil prices to a new 2016 high also helped underpin the mood.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 175.39 points, or 1.0%, to close at 17,710.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.2% to 4775.46 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.0% to 2066.66.

Gains in shares of Apple and those of Home Depot, up 2.3%, led the Dow higher.

Berkshire held 9.81 million Apple shares as of March 31, according to a regulatory filing.

Apple stock "is stunningly cheap and it has a massive pile of cash," says Steve Wallman, founder of Wallman Investment Counsel and who has owned Berkshire since 1982 and Apple since 2003. "Apple is not getting credit for research and development it is doing behind the scenes."

Oil nears $US50 a barrel
Equities also received a lift from oil, which rose 3.3% to $US47.72 a barrel, a new high for the year. Goldman Sachs became more upbeat about the outlook, predicting US crude might rise as high a $US50 a barrel in the second half of this year.

"The oil market has gone from nearing storage saturation to being in deficit much earlier than we expected," said Goldman, which added that supply likely shifted into a deficit in May, Reuters reported.

It helped the mood.

"Earnings are over more or less and the market is searching to see what the second half of the year will look like," Craig Sterling, head of US equity research at Pioneer Investments in Boston, told Bloomberg.

"The price of oil and other commodities seem to be catching a bid so there's hope there will be improvement in the industrial side of the economy."

Energy companies in the S&P 500 posted strong gains. Williams Companies rose 6.4%. FMC Technologies climbed 4.7% and Marathon Oil gained 4.4%.

Pfizer to buy Anacor
Meanwhile, shares of Pfizer rose 0.5% after the company said it agreed to buy Anacor Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth about $US5.2 billion. Shares of Anacor soared 55.7%.

"We believe the acquisition of Anacor represents an attractive opportunity to address a significant unmet medical need for a large patient population with mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis, which currently has few safe topical treatments available," Albert Bourla, group president of Pfizer's global innovative pharma and global vaccines, oncology and consumer healthcare businesses, said in a statement.

"Anacor will be a strong fit with Pfizer's innovative business, further supporting our strategic focus on Inflammation and Immunology, and is expected to enhance near-term revenue growth for the innovative business."

Europe's Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with a gain of less than 0.1% from previous close. The UK's FTSE 100 index added 0.2%. France's CAC 40 index slipped 0.2%. German financial markets were closed for a holiday.

(BusinessDesk)