By Abhiram Nandakumar and Sweta Singh
REUTERS - Wall Street was higher on Tuesday as shares of health care companies and raw material producers bounced back and data showed consumer confidence was at its highest since January.
Commodity prices, which fell after weak Chinese data on Monday and sparked a sharp selloff, edged up but held to their multi-year lows.
Nine of the 10 S&P sectors were up, with the healthcare index's 2.12 percent gain leading the advancers. The index had been under pressure after U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized drug pricing.
Vertex Pharma and Biogen were up more than 4 percent and were among the top gainers on the index.
The materials index was up 0.5 percent after declines on Monday.
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"I think it's just more of a relief rally and it's going to be important to see the market hold the rally and maybe even improve as we go through the day," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite index have closed down for the last five sessions. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index closed lower for the seventh straight day on Monday.
"I think a lot of traders are hoping that this is the end of the pullback," said Gordon Charlop, a managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York.
Investors are keeping an eye on data scheduled to be released this week, culminating in nonfarm payrolls numbers on Friday.
Data on Tuesday showed the consumer confidence index rose to 103.0, topping economists' expectation of 96.1.
With third-quarter earnings season looming, Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday it expects sales growth for S&P 500 companies to shrink this year for the first time in five years.
At 10:16 a.m. ET (1416 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was up 60.27 points, or 0.38 percent, at 16,062.16, the S&P 500 was up 11.47 points, or 0.61 percent, at 1,893.24 and the Nasdaq composite was up 32.55 points, or 0.72 percent, at 4,576.52.
U.S. companies reporting quarterly earnings on Tuesday include Costco and Diamond Foods.
Yahoo shares rose 5.8 percent to $29.19 on Tuesday, a day after the Internet company's board decided to proceed with spinning off Alibaba stake.
Republic Airways was up 15 percent at $6.08 after Deutsche Bank raised the stock to "buy" and the airline reached agreement on new contract with its pilots.
Shares of Phoenix Cos more than doubled to $32.73 after the company agreed to be acquired by Nassau Reinsurance.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,617 to 1,170. On the Nasdaq, 1,390 issues rose and 1,094 fell.
The S&P 500 index showed one new 52-week high and 52 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded four new highs and 178 new lows.
(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar and Sweta Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)