US stocks rise on growth data; Spanish stocks gain

Wall Street stocks rose Tuesday for the second straight session after a report showed third-quarter US economic growth in line with expectations at two percent.

The Commerce Department trimmed its estimate of US growth in the July to September period to 2.0 percent from 2.1 percent, in part because of lower business investment in inventories and the drag from the strong dollar on exports.

Yet analysts took heart from a solid 3.0 percent rise in personal consumption expenditures, which drive about two-thirds of the activity in the US economy.

"I would characterize it as solid growth," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS.

"Once you get past some of these anomalies having to do with inventories and with weakness overseas, the good news is the domestic parts of the economy are very solid."

The broad-based S&P 500 finished up 0.9 percent, notching up its second straight gain after dropping 3.3 percent on Thursday and Friday.

In Madrid the IBEX 35 index rose by 0.5 percent. The Spanish market had slumped by 3.6 percent on Monday following an election that has left the country in political limbo with the ruling party losing its majority in parliament.

A Barclays note laid out five potential scenarios in Spain, including another election.

"On the economic side, we have seen no sign of a slowdown in economic activity," Barclays said.

"For the markets, as the political uncertainty is likely to continue at least through the beginning of 2016, we expect continuing underperformance of Spanish assets."

- US oil rises -

London's commodity-heavy FTSE 100 was boosted by gains in Anglo American, Glencore and Royal Dutch Shell as oil prices stabilized.

Paris ended with a small gain and Frankfurt a small loss. The Nikkei 225 in Japan dropped modestly.

The dollar retreated a bit against the euro.

US oil prices rose 33 cents to $36.14 a barrel, edging above European benchmark Brent North Sea crude for the first time since January.

John Kilduff, a founding partner at Again Capital, said the push of WTI above Brent could mark a "new phase" between the two contracts in the wake of last week's measure passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama to lift a 40-year ban on US oil exports.

However, Kilduff noted that Tuesday's trade may have been distorted by low trading volume as well as by end-of-year crude destocking in the US Gulf Coast for tax purposes.

"You have to be very careful of drawing any conclusions between now and the end of the month," Kilduff said

- Key figures around 2200 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 1.0 percent at 17,417.27 (close)

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.9 percent at 2,038.97 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: UP 0.7 percent at 5,001.11 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.8 percent at 6,083.10 points (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.1 percent at 10,488.75 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 4,567.60 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.04 percent at 3,214.32 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.2 percent at 18,886.70 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0954 from $1.0915 late Monday

Dollar/yen: DOWN to 121.10 yen from 121.21 yen