Energy stocks rise with increasing oil prices

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks brushed aside their first wobble of the year and got back to setting records yesterday. Energy stocks led the way after the price of oil touched its highest level since 2014.

The gains for indexes marked a return to calm, after a whiff of nervousness wafted through markets a day earlier as interest rates rose. After rates held steady yesterday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index marked its seventh gain in the past eight days. The S&P 500 rose 19.33 points, or 0.7 percent, to a record 2,767.56. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 205.60 points, or 0.8 percent, to 25,574.73, the Nasdaq composite gained 58.21 points, or 0.8 percent, to 7,211.78 and the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks surged 26.99 points, or 1.7 percent, to 1,586.79.

The market’s smooth ride upward hit a bump Wednesday when worries rose that a jump in interest rates could derail the ascent. Rates have been ultra-low since the Great Recession, a culmination of a decline in bond yields over the past threeplus decades.

Rates retreated yesterday after China’s foreign exchange regulator challenged a report that had helped drive up yields, which said China may slow or halt purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds. A U.S. government report yesterday also showed that inflation was weaker on the wholesale level last month than economists expected.

Energy stocks were the day’s biggest stars after the price of oil touched its highest price in more than three years. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 23 cents to settle at $63.80 per barrel after earlier climbing as high as $64.77. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 6 cents to $69.26 per barrel.

That helped drive energy stocks in the S&P 500 to a 2 percent gain, the largest among the 11 sectors that make up the index. They’re at their highest level since the end of 2016.