Wall St: Shares rise on oil surge and dovish Fed

Thursday, 18 Feb 2016 05:51:02 | Thuy Ong

The NYSE floor was full of green for the third trading day in a row. (Chip East, file photo: Reuters)

Wall Street has climbed higher, with the S&P 500 up for a third consecutive session, its longest winning streak so far this year, as stock buying was underpinned by a surge in oil prices.

Brent crude rallied 7.5 per cent after Iran voiced support for a move to freeze production by major oil producers, including Saudi Arabia and Russia.

West Texas crude bounced 5.6 per cent to $US30.66 a barrel.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.6 per cent to 16,454.

The Nasdaq rallied 2.2 per cent to 4,534, while the S&P 500 gained 1.7 per cent to 1,927.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve minutes showed policymakers judged recent market volatility has "increased the level of downside risks" to the US economy.

The minutes released in Washington indicated officials were worried about volatility and disruptions which are likely to derail their December projections of four rate rises in 2016.

Overnight, European shares also rallied. In London, the FTSE 100 jumped 2.9 per cent to 6,030, the German DAX gained 2.7 per cent to 9,377, while France's CAC 40 surged 3 per cent to 4,233.

Locally, the ASX SPI 200 gained 1.4 per cent, indicating a strong start for local shares after a modest fall in the previous session.

The Australian dollar gained 0.9 per cent against the greenback to buy 71.8 US cents.

It was buying 81.7 Japanese yen, 50.2 British pence, 64.4 euro cents and $NZ1.082 New Zealand.

On commodities markets, spot gold added 0.6 per cent to $US1,210 an ounce.

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Wall St: Shares rise on oil surge and dovish Fed

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