In New York on Tuesday, equities markets were up, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.6 percent to 10,683.74, while the Nasdaq composite gained over 1 percent to 2,218.15 and the S&P 500 added 1,244.08.

Analysts warned investors not to get too excited about recent gains, however, because statistically speaking August and September are the worst performing months for US markets.

On the announcement that CNOOC had dropped its bid for Unocal due to political factors, shares in Chevron gained 1.9 percent to $59.56 and Unocal was up 0.3 percent to $64.53.

Among automobile manufacturers, Ford and DaimlerChrysler were up and General Motors was down after all three companies showed improvements in sales in the quarter on large discounts to car buyers. Ford gained 0.3 percent to $10.88, DaimlerChrysler was up 2.8 percent to $50.75, while GM lost 0.9 percent to $36.53.

The media sector was up as a whole by 0.8 percent on the day. Cable tv and internet provider Comcast reported that its profits were up 62 percent in the quarter even though cable and internet subscriptions were down. Shares in Comcast were up 1.3 percent on the day to $31.00. Time Warner and Viacom will report their quarterly earnings later in the week.