Stocks rise on earnings; oil jumps nearly 6%
Stocks climbed further into the black Wednesday as better-than-expected earnings boosted investor sentiment and sent major indexes back up toward record levels.
Energy stocks led the pack again as oil prices rose for a fourth straight day with benchmark U.S. crude surging nearly 6% to close at $56.39 a barrel in New York.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 10.79 points, or 0.5%, to 2106.63. The broad-based index rose as high as 2111.91 earlier in the session, coming within 6 points of ts record close of 2117.39 set March 2.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 75.91 points, or 0.4%, to 18,112.61.
The Nasdaq composite index jumped back above the 5000 mark as it rose 33.73 points, or 0.7%, to close at 5011.02. The tech-heavy index is about 15 points away from its 2015 closing high of 5026.42 and is 37 points from its all-time closing high of 5048.62 set on March 10, 2000.
Earlier in the day, market watchers were buzzing about a stunning protest at an ECB press conference before the U.S. market open. In Frankfurt, a protester interrupted the European Central Bank's press conference screaming "End ECB dictatorship."
The woman rushed to the stage where ECB President Mario Draghi was delivering opening remarks. The ECB had just announced it was keeping rates the same.
In earnings news:
■ Delta Airlines posted a first quarter profit of $746 million, or 90 cents per share. Investors cleared Atlanta-based DAL for takeoff, putting shares in a 2.6% climb.
■ Intel (INTC) shares surged 4.3% after reporting earnings that met analysts' expectations.
■ Bank of America said first-quarter results were dampened slightly due to lower interest rates on its debt portfolios. Charlotte-based BAC was off 1.1%.
In other U.S. corporate news:
■ Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle is stepping down, the Indianapolis company said. ANGI shares rose 5.9%.
■ Google is fighting EU accusations that the Mountain View, Calif., tech icon is abusing its dominance of the Internet search market. GOOG fell, then nosed upward after the news.
■ Segway, the iconic but struggling maker of self-balancing personal electric scooters, has been bought by a Chinese rival, Ninebot.
Stocks reacted positively to the Fed's afternoon release of its Beige Book report, which showed an economy that's growing, albeit slowly.
The economy continued to grow at a stubbornly slow pace in late winter, according to the Beige Book, an anecdotal roundup of business conditions at the 12 Fed districts.
In other economy news, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index rose four points to 56 this month, the highest level since January, from a revised reading of 52 in March.
Before its Beige Book release, the Fed said that industrial production — which includes factories, utilities and mines — slid 0.6% in March, the biggest decline since a 1.1% drop in May 2009.
European shares closed higher. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.3%, Germany's DAX inched up a fraction and France's CAC 40 climbed 0.7%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index ended 0.2% lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 0.2%, while the SSE in Shanghai fell 1.2%.
Contributing: John Waggoner, Kaja Whitehouse, Charisse Jones, The Associated Press.
