NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Stocks rallied early Tuesday, as investors returned from the long holiday weekend eager to get back into the market, with a drop in oil prices helping boost sentiment.
The Dow Jones industrial average (down 30.08 to 10,260.20, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 (down 4.68 to 1,113.63, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (down 28.95 to 1,844.48, Charts) all gained in early trade.
Light volume and little momentum had marred stock action for the last few weeks, as investors waited out the Olympics, the Republican Convention and the end of the dog days of summer, which for many people concluded with Monday's Labor Day holiday.
After such a sluggish two weeks, investors were willing to get back in early Tuesday. Whether that positive momentum is sustainable beyond the short-term is still in question, with September traditionally one of the worst months for the market.
Among early movers, Cisco Systems (CSCO: unchanged at $18.75, Research, Estimates) gained after CIBC World Markets upgraded the stock to "outperform."
Supporting early gains was a continued drop in the price of oil. Exporter Saudi Arabia said Monday it would cut prices to the U.S. and Europe, and the head of OPEC said Tuesday that markets were well-supplied. U.S. light crude fell almost $1 to $43.07 a barrel in electronic trading, while Brent crude oil futures fell 24 cents to $40.38 in London.
COMEX gold fell $1.70 to $400.80 an ounce.
Treasury prices gained, pushing the 10-year note yield down to 4.27 percent from 4.29 percent late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the yen and euro.
In global trade, Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday, and European markets were mixed at midday.
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