Energy firms give stocks modest lift

U.S. stocks finished modestly higher Wednesday, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 index its third gain in as many days.

Energy firms rose more than the rest of the market, riding a surge in crude oil prices. Solid gains in industrial stocks and retailers outweighed losses among food and beverage firms, tech stocks and banks.

Investors continued to bid up companies that reported positive earnings or outlooks. Not all companies delivered welcome results. IBM singlehandedly pulled the Dow Jones industrial average into the red.

The S&P 500 index edged up 2.25 points to 2,708.64. The Dow slipped 38.56 points to 24,748.07. The Nasdaq composite rose 14.14 points to 7,295.24. The Russell 2000 index of smallercompany stocks rose 3.76 points to 1,583.56.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.87% from 2.83%.

Investors sifted through corporate earnings reports. Financial analysts forecast the strongest growth in seven years for S&P 500 companies, partly because of a resurgent global economy but also because of last year’s corporate tax cut.

Roughly 10% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported results this earnings season, and some 67% of those have delivered both earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ expectations, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Railroad operator CSX’s shares jumped 7.8% to $61.01 and aircraft maker Textron’s shares climbed 6.8% to $63.99 after their results beat analysts’ forecasts.

United Continental rose 4.8% to $70.58 after the airline company raised its earnings outlook for the year.

Best Buy advanced 3.6% to $75.40 after announcing a partnership to sell Fire TVs with Amazon. Roku slid 11.8% to $31.72.

IBM was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500, sliding 7.5% to $148.79. That’s its biggest loss in five years. The tech company’s results failed to impress investors.

Oil futures surged after Reuters published a report citing unnamed industry sources saying Saudi Arabia would be happy to see crude oil prices hit $100 a barrel.

Benchmark U.S. crude jumped $1.95, or 2.9%, to $68.47 a barrel. Brent crude climbed $1.90, or 2.7%, to $73.48 a barrel. That helped lift energy stocks. Newfield Exploration rose 5.9% to $28.89.

The dollar rose to 107.26 yen from 107.02 yen. The euro rose to $1.2377 from $1.2367.

Gold rose $4 to $1,353.50 an ounce. Silver rose 46 cents, or 2.7%, to $17.25 an ounce. Copper rose 8 cents to $3.16 a pound.

Heating oil rose 3 cents to $2.09 a gallon. Wholesale gasoline ticked up 3 cents to $2.07 a gallon.