May 7 (UPI) — After a weeks-long slump, oil prices rose on Thursday to move toward a historic finish for the week — and also helped U.S. stocks take off after the opening bell.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 400 points after two and a half hours of trading on Wall Street and the S&P 500 was up about 40 points. The Nasdaq, the only major U.S. index that posted gains on Wednesday, had risen about 130 points — erasing all of its losses from the coronavirus crisis to move into growth territory for 2020.
Thursday was the first time any of the three major indices moved into positive territory, year-to-year, since the start of the pandemic.
Oil prices also fell on Wednesday but rebounded Thursday to position themselves for their best-performing week in history.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, climbed to about $26 — while Brent crude traded around $31 per barrel.
The WTI increase of nearly 35 percent so far this week puts it on pace for its best performance since its inception in 1983. Both, however, are still rebounding from major declines in March and April that saw them lose more than 50 percent of their value.
“There is an increasing sense that the worst is behind the industry,” analyst John Kilduff told CNBC Thursday.
