Stocks Closed Higher amid Earnings

U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday as oil hit highs for the year and investors continued to digest financial earnings and economic reports.The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 75.91 points, or 0.42%, to 18,112.61. The S&P 500 added 10.79 points, or 0.51%, to 2,106.63. The Nasdaq Composite gained 33.73 points, or 0.68%, to 5,011.02.

Oil prices rallied and U.S. crude jumped nearly 6 percent to a 2015 peak on Wednesday after government data
showed crude oil inventories in the United States rose less than expected last week. U.S. May crude (CLc1)
rose $3.10 to settle at $56.39 a barrel, highest of the year.

Netflix Inc. added a better-than-expected 4.88 million streaming subscribers in the March quarter, as the video distributor continued to benefit from its aggressive overseas expansion. For the current quarter, Netflix projects a profit of 26 cents a share, compared with the consensus of 90 cents a share.

The euro traded higher against the U.S. dollar after the Federal Reserve said a March contraction in industrial production was larger than the market had expected.