Oil gushes above $65 ; Dow went for a joyride

Stocks Lifted by Oils, Financials

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 103.78, or 1.3 percent, to 8,403.80.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13.77, or 1.5 percent, to 906.83.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 20.71, or 1.2 percent, to 1,751.79.
For the week:
The Dow is up 126.48, or 1.5 percent.
The S&P is up 19.83, or 2.2 percent.
The Nasdaq is up 59.78, or 3.5 percent.
For the year:
The Dow is down 372.59, or 4.3 percent.
The S&P is up 3.58, or 0.4 percent.
The Nasdaq is up 174.76, or 11.1 percent.

Stocks in New York moved more than 1% higher Wednesday, fueled by oil stocks and financials, while investors also digested a Treasury auction. Oil and gas stocks were also on the rise after OPEC decided to keep its production targets unchanged, reportedly eyeing an uptick in demand.

Financials were among the stronger stocks on the Dow, with JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote) rising 5.7% and Bank of America(BAC Quote) adding 3.6% after it detailed plans to further increase capital levels by exchanging 200 million shares of common stock for preferred.

Crude oil futures rose $1.63 to settle at $65.08 a barrel. "Oil prices are up, breaching $64 per barrel, in the aftermath of the OPEC meeting where a crude oil price 'target' of $75-$80/barrel by year-end was discussed," writes Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group. "If achieved through further OPEC oil supply cuts, this would cause a major relapse in the global economy's feeble recovery hopes for 2010."

It didn't hurt that crude oil inventory levels, which are still 18% above the same time last year, fell sharply last week. Stockpiles were down by 5.4 million barrels, vs. expectations for a 1.8 billion barrel build. Gasoline inventories, on the other hand, fell less than expected, by 600,000 barrels to 203.4 million, but are 2.4% below a year prior.

Stocks in Europe were widely lower, with London's FTSE 100 and Frankfurt's Dax down by 0.7% and 1.4%, respectively. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei gained 0.1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was closed for the session.

Gold gained $8 to settle at $962.80 an ounce, and the dollar was stronger vs. the pound and euro and slightly weaker against the yen.