Stocks Opened Mostly Higher

U.S. stocks opened modestly higher on Thursday, driven by gains in the financial and energy sectors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 111.68 points, or 0.44%, to 25,258.07. The S&P 500 added 7.39 points, or 0.27%, to 2,779.74. The Nasdaq Composite gained 3.29 points, or 0.04%, to 7,692.53.

Oil futures rose Thursday, taking back some of the ground lost in the previous session on worries about potential and existing hits to production by Iran and Venezuela. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery rose 65 cents, or 1%, to $65.38 a barrel. August Brent crude was up $1.15 or 1.5%, at $76.51 a barrel.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday that Washington has reached a deal with ZTE Corp that would reverse a ban on buying parts from U.S. suppliers, allowing China’s No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker to get back into business.

Amazon (AMZN) has debuted a new version of its Fire TV that mashes up the streaming box with the company’s super-popular Echo speaker. The new Fire TV Cube is designed to serve as a high-end Fire TV that you can completely control via Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.