Wall St. rallies tracking oil, car sales

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose more than 1 percent on Tuesday, led by gains in energy shares as oil prices extended their recent rally, while higher-than-expected January car sales also bolstered the advance.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) rose 304.98 points, or 1.76 percent, to 17,666.02, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 29.09 points, or 1.44 percent, to 2,049.94 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 51.05 points, or 1.09 percent, to 4,727.74.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Nick Zieminski)