Stocks Ended Sharply Higher, Booked Weekly Gain

U.S. stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday, pulling its benchmark indexes back into positive territory for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 254.69 points, or 1.07%, to 24,103.11. The S&P 500 rose 35.87 points, or 1.38%, to 2,640.87. The Nasdaq Composite rose 114.22 points, or 1.64%, to 7,063.44. For the week, the Dow rose 2.7%, the S&P added 2.1% and the Nasdaq was up 1%.

Oil prices ended higher Thursday, notching its third straight quarterly rise in a row. May West Texas Intermediate crude added 56 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $64.94 a barrel. May Brent crude rose 74 cents, or 1.1%, to end at $70.27 a barrel. For quarter, May West was up roughly 7.7%.Brent rose 5.1% for the quarter.