Business News

US stocks continue rally on energy shares

Oct 15, 2009, 21:06 GMT

New York - US stocks were driven higher by energy shares on Thursday, one day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 10,000 points for the first time in more than a year.

Energy companies were buoyant as crude oil climbed to its own one- year high of 77.58 dollars per barrel in New York trading, up 3.2 per cent from Wednesday.

The energy gains overshadowed a drop in financial and technology shares.

US bank Citigroup returned to the red with a 3.2-billion-dollar loss in the third quarter, due mostly to another 8-billion-dollar credit writedown. Citigroup said it had earnings of 101 million dollars excluding one-time costs.

Goldman Sachs reported third-quarter earnings trebled to 3.19 billion dollars, but the two banks earnings disappointed Wall Street's expectations.

News on Wednesday that rival JPMorgan Chase's third-quarter profits rose almost seven-fold to 3.59 billion dollars helped push the blue-chip Dow above the symbolic 10,000 mark for the first time since October 2008.

On Thursday the Dow cemented those gains, rising 47.08 points, or 0.47 per cent, to close at 10,062.94. The broader Standard and Poor's 500 Index added 4.54 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 1,096.56. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index inched up 1.06 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 2,173.29.

The US currency edged lower to 66.93 euro cents from 67.01 euro cents on Wednesday. The dollar climbed against the Japanese currency to 90.59 yen from 89.41 yen.