Stocks Closed Up On Oil Rally, Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday, buoyed by a rebound in oil prices and upbeat quarterly earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 211.86 points, or 1.20%, to 17,884.88. The S&P 500 gained 21.01 points, or 1.03%, to 2,062.52. The Nasdaq Composite added 48.39 points, or 1.03%, to 4,765.10.

Crude prices closed up more than 4 percent on Thursday. Benchmark Brent crude futures (LCOc1) settled up $2.41 (2 pounds), or 4.5 percent, at $57.57 a barrel.

Twitter Inc (TWTR) said on Thursday its revenue in the fourth quarter grew 97 percent, surpassing Wall Street expectations, but the growth rate of its monthly users slowed significantly. Twitter said revenue in the three months ended Dec. 31 totaled $479 million. Monthly active users in the fourth quarter totaled 288 million.

Corporate networking site LinkedIn Corp (LNKD) reported a 44 percent rise in quarterly revenue as more business used its services to assess candidates for employment. The company’s net income fell to $3.1 million, or 2 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from $3.8 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $643.4 million from $447.2 million.

GoPro beat Wall Street’s forecasts on Thursday as revenue more than doubled from a year earlier. The wearable camera maker reported fourth-quarter earnings of 99 cents per share, up from 33 cents a share in the year earlier period. Revenue soared 75 percent to $633.9 million, from $361.5 million a year ago.