S&P 500 closes at highest level since November

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. ( Photo source: AP/ Richard Drew)

NEW YORK: Wall Street erased early losses on Thursday (Jun 2) to push the S&P 500 to its highest finish since November.

Industrial blue chips like DuPont and Caterpillar led the gains, which come a day before the May US jobs report which could set the tone for interest-rate increase plans by the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 48.89 points (0.27 per cent) at 17,838.56.

The broad-market S&P 500 added 5.93 points (0.28 per cent) at 2,105.26, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 19.11 points (0.39 per cent) to 4,971.36.

The reversal of early losses was helped by a rebound in crude prices, which were sharply lower as the market opened after OPEC failed to take action at its Vienna meeting to strengthen the crude market.

After the weekly US petroleum report showed a fall in stockpiles, crude prices rebounded, pulling oil stocks like ExxonMobil and Chevron up from their lows - though the sector still finished down for the day.

"No real big move. We really fell into lockstep with energy prices," said Art Hogan of Wunderlich Securities. "Energy was lower and rebounded and closed in positive territory, so we're just higher with that. We rallied a bit but nothing monumental."

Silicon Valley software giant Oracle sank 4.0 per cent after a former accountant filed a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging the company told her to artificially pump up cloud-computing sales data.

Alibaba added 0.8 per cent after Wednesday's 7.0 per cent plunge on news that its main shareholder SoftBank was selling a US$7.9 billion stake in the Chinese online marketing powerhouse.

Yahoo, whose largest asset is its sizable stake in Alibaba, rose 1.4 per cent.

Viacom shares rose 1.4 per cent after a granddaughter of owner Sumner Redstone backed Viacom management in their battle with Redstone and his daughter over control of the company after the 93-year-old tycoon dies.