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Wall Street gets lift from retreat in oil prices
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NEW YORK - Wall Street rallied Monday as oil prices fell back and alleviated some of investors' concerns about accelerating inflation. The Dow Jones industrials gained 130 points.
Oil's retreat helped soothe some of Wall Street's worries about inflation's impact on consumer spending. Crude briefly reached a new trading high of $126.40, but light, sweet crude oil fell $1.73 to settle at $124.23 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"This market does seem to be reacting positively to any sort of easing we see in the energy patch," said Craig Peckham, market strategist at Jefferies & Co.
Investors also got some encouraging news about the credit crisis from London-based HSBC Holdings PLC, which said its first-quarter profits were up from a year ago although the global banking company took a $3.2 billion write-down on subprime mortgage assets in the United States.
Monday's gains showed that investors still are willing to lay some bets, although some market watchers said Wall Street likely still will see stocks fluctuate as investors try to determine the economy's direction.
The advance followed a week in which major indexes all fell as worries about the effect of inflation weighed on investors.
The Dow rose 130.43, or 1.02 percent, to 12,876.31.
Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 15.30, or 1.10 percent, to 1,403.58, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 42.97, or 1.76 percent, to 2,488.49.
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