Dow, S&P Posted Third-straight Quarterly Gain

U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday in their third-straight day of recovery from the post-Brexit sell-off. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 235.31 points, or 1.33%, to 17,929.99. The S&P 500 climbed 28.09 points, or 1.36%, to 2,098.86. The Nasdaq Composite gained 63.43 points, or 1.33%, to 4,842.67. Both the S&P and the Dow finished the second quarter with small gains of 1.2% and 1.7%, while the Nasdaq posted a slight drop of 0.5%.

Oil futures finished lower on Thursday after a two-session rally, but prices posted gains for the quarter and year to date as recent global output disruptions and strong U.S. demand for gasoline helped to cut down the glut of crude supplies. August WTI crude fell $1.55, or 3.1%, to settle at $48.33 a barrel. It gained about 26.1% for the second quarter.

Hershey Co (HSY.N) said on Thursday it had rejected a $23 billion (17.37 billion pounds) preliminary offer by Mondelez International Inc (MDLZ.O) that would seek to expand the latter’s U.S. footprint and create the world’s largest confectioner.

A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out a $7.25 billion antitrust settlement that Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc had reached with millions of retailers that accused the card networks of improperly fixing credit and debit card fees.