STOCKS FALL, OIL EXPLODES HIGHER: Here's what you need to know

A service truck drives past an oil well on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, November 1, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen

(Thomson Reuters)

It was another choppy day of trading to finish August, one of the most volatile months for the stock market in years.

Oil took center stage again Monday, rising 8% after a nearly 20% gain at the end of last week. Crude oil is now up nearly 30% in just three days, its biggest three-day rally in 25 years.

Each of the major US stock indexes finished the month down more than 6%, their biggest monthly loss since May 2012.

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 16,528, -115, (-0.7%)

• S&P 500: 1,972, -17, (-0.8%)

• Nasdaq: 4,776, -52, (-1.1%)

And now, Monday's top stories:

1. Oil went nuts. On Monday, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose as much as 8% to north of $49 a barrel, basically wiping out all the losses seen during August. The furious rally Monday followed at nearly 20% at the end of last week, which some traders attributed to short covering after many folks upped their bets that the price of crude would keep falling. Also pressuring crude on Monday was news out of OPEC that the 12-member oil cartel "stands ready to talk to all other producers."

2. Also in oil news, the latest reading on manufacturing activity in Texas — the epicenter of the US fracking boom — disappointed again as concerns over the price of oil still plague the region. As one executive said, "July was a particularly bad month for the oil patch ... Customers have starved vendors for the first half of the year, and things are turning loose now. Who knows how long it will last. Uncertainty about where the price of oil is headed has everyone on pins and needles."

3. In response to the rally in oil prices, some of the biggest stock gainers Monday were oil companies, the most beaten-down sector of the market this year. Among the big winners were shares of Whiting Petroleum, up 11%, while shares of SM Energy, CONSOL Energy, and Newfield Exploration rose more than 5%. ConocoPhillips shares, meanwhile, rose more than 4%.

4. Also rallying Monday were shares of Phillips 66, which got a boost following the disclosure by Warren Buffett that Berkshire Hathaway has accumulated a 10% stake in the company. US Securities and Exchange Commission filings indicated that Berkshire had been aggressively buying shares of the company over the last three days of last week.

5. Shares of Twitter rose more than 3% after the stock got an upgrade from SunTrust analyst Bob Peck, one of the most prominent tech analysts covering the company, who thinks the stock is worth $38 a share. Peck also thinks Twitter will be naming a new CEO by Labor Day, and will likely name founder Jack Dorsey to this role. But the bottom line on Peck's view of the company is that things just can't get any worse.

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