U.S. stock indexes climbed steadily Monday as oil prices eased back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, losing 80 cents per barrel on the day.

I always think the fundamentals are in control of this market, Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago told The Wall Street Journal.

Speculators, he said, are using oil as a place to park their money. But they couldn't keep prices high if the fundamentals weren't generally favorable.

On crude oil's retreat, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 125.95 points in early afternoon trading to 12,871.83, up 0.99 percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 index rose 12.57 points to 1,400.80, up 0.90 percent. The Nasdaq composite index increased by 36.82 points to 2,482.34, up 1.51 percent.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note gained 8/32 to yield 3.75 percent.

The euro traded at $1.5545 from Friday's $1.5483 and the dollar traded at 103.84 yen from Friday's 102.97 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index gained 88.02 points to 13,743.36, up 0.64 percent.

In London, the FTSE 100 index gained 15.90 points to 6,220.60, up 0.26 percent.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International


Publication date: 12 May 2008   

Source: UPI-1-20080512-14372300-bc-us-markets-1stld.xml

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