Wall Street pared back early gains on Tuesday as oil prices reversed course, but gains in Apple and healthcare stocks provided support. Crude prices retreated back towards $30 per barrel, which led to a 0.75 percent drop in the energy sector, making them the worst performing among the 10 major S&P sectors. Still, stocks held on to gains, with the S&P 500 holding above the key 1900 level and the Nasdaq on track to end a streak of eight straight days of losses.

"We're seeing a bounce here and the reason for that is, from a technical perspective, the S&P got down to that 1900-level (on Monday)," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York. "We managed to successfully close above it (on Monday) and that's bringing in some buying this morning, just from a very oversold condition."

At 11:09 am ET (1609 GMT), the S&P 500 was up 7.86 points, or 0.41 percent, at 1,931.53. The index dropped to a low of 1901.10 on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 50.33 points, or 0.31 percent, at 16,448.9 and the Nasdaq Composite index was up 35.99 points, or 0.78 percent, at 4,673.98. The day's action will likely be driven by company-specific news, rather than macro-economic conditions, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. Five of the 10 major S&P sectors were higher, led by the health sector's 0.67 percent increase. Medtronic's 3.2 percent jump led the gains, while Anthem's raised 2016 profit forecast led a rally in health insurers.

Copyright Reuters, 2016