While you were sleeping: UPDATED Wall St ends five-day losing streak

Stocks on Wall Street snapped a five-day losing streak as telecommunication and utility shares gained.

The recovery came after earlier losses as investors geared up for Britain's potential exit from the European Union (Brexit), a fate that hinges on a June 23 referendum.

The murder of Jo Cox, 41, a pro-EU Labour MP, prompted both sides in the UK debate to suspend campaigning for a day.  She was shot and stabbed by a Brexit supporter while preparing to meet with constituents in Birstall near Leeds,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 92.93 points, or 0.5%, at 17,734.10 after pl;unging as much as 169 in morning trading. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2% to 4844.91 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.3% to 2078.06.

“The market has been quite resilient,“ Jeremy Zirin, head of equity strategy at UBS Wealth Management Americas, told Dow Jones.

“There’s no shortage of event-risk items, and some questions about the key economic fundamentals that investors are wrestling with. The good news is most of the economic data is holding up fairly well.”

Investors move to safety
Telecommunication stocks in the S&P 500 rose 0.8% and utility shares climbed 0.5% as investors bought companies that tend to hold up better in times of economic uncertainty.

Merck rose the most in the Dow, gaining 2.7%. Energy shares were the only S&P 500 sector to decline as US oil prices fell 3.7% to $US46.21 a barrel.

Gold for June delivery rose 0.8% to $US1296.10, its highest settlement value since January 2015.

German 10-year government bond yields touched a new all-time low of -0.035%, while yields on the benchmark 10-year US Treasurys dropped to 1.563%, the lowest close level since August 2012, from 1.594% on Wednesday.

Preparing for Brexit
"They are preparing for the worst on a Brexit vote," Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey, told Reuters.

"US companies have spent over $US600 billion over time to make the UK their home and now they don't know what will happen to their investment."

Europe's Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with a decline of 0.7% from the previous close. The UK's FTSE 100 index slid 0.3%, France's CAC 40 index retreated 0.5%, while Germany's DAX index dropped 0.6%.

"Recent polls have shown Brexit is too close to call, or leaning in the direction of leaving," Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott, told Bloomberg.

"That campaign cooling a bit could provide relief to investors who think further campaigning will help drive votes in the direction of a Brexit. How sticky of a sentiment that will be is yet to be determined."

A day after the US Federal Reserve signalled an even-more gradual path for future interest rate increases, a Labor Department report on inflation firmed albeit less than analysts had predicted. The consumer price index rose 0.2% last month, following a 0.4% increase in April.

Meanwhile, a separate report showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 277,000 for the week ended June 11.

"The message from claims continues to be that the April/May payrolls data greatly exaggerated the extent to which the trend in employment growth is weakening," Jim O'Sullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note to clients, Bloomberg reported.

(BusinessDesk)