Dow, S&P 500 inch higher with financial, energy shares

(Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 edged higher late Tuesday afternoon following three straight days of declines, as energy shares rose with oil prices and financial shares gained.

The Nasdaq was barely negative, led down by shares of biotech companies including Biogen , down 1.3 percent at $381.35. The Nasdaq Biotech Index was down 0.7 percent.

The S&P energy index was up 0.4 percent, while S&P financials were up 0.5 percent, helped by prospects for higher interest rates.

"It kind of feels like a little bit of a snapback after the selloffs we've had in the last week, week and a half," said Larry Peruzzi, senior equity trader at Cabrera Capital Markets Inc in Boston.

"Oil is putting some positive momentum into the marketplace in the energy stocks and expectations that production is doing well as a result of it," he said.

Another batch of strong economic data underscored views that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates in September.

Growing expectations that the Fed could raise rates sooner rather than later pushed the blue-chip Dow index into negative territory for 2015 on Monday, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes touched their lowest in over a month.

At 2:18 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average rose 19.45 points, or 0.11 percent, to 17,786, the S&P 500 gained 2.95 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,082.23 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.18 points, or 0.06 percent, to 5,018.45. Indexes posted losses for last week.

Data on Tuesday showed that U.S. job openings surged to a record high in April and small business confidence increased in May, signs that the economy was regaining momentum after stumbling at the start of the year.

Shares of Hovnanian Enterprises dropped 8.2 percent to $2.91 after posting disappointing results.

Lululemon shares rose 9.7 percent to $67.50 after the Canadian yogawear retailer raised its full-year revenue and earnings forecast.

Sage Therapeutics jumped 11.4 percent to $83.70 after its experimental injectable drug was found to be effective in treating postpartum depression.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,799 to 1,225, for a 1.47-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,446 issues fell and 1,243 advanced for a 1.16-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 10 new 52-week highs and 9 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 82 new highs and 39 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Ted Kerr and Meredith Mazzilli)