Despite worries by stock investors about slumping oil prices and state of the world economy, this past week the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) stock index notched its second-best week this year, gaining 9.42 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,070.65, bringing its weekly gain to 3.4 percent. Also, Nasdaq picked up 16.98 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,765.38, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 26.65 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,804.80.
The Associated Press (AP) reported on Dec. 19 that oil and gas companies led the stock market up on Friday, as Benchmark United States crude bounced up this past week from recent lows, climbing $2.77 to settle at $57.13 a barrel in New York, as traders bet that a six-month plunge in prices had gone too far. Chevron, Denbury Resources and other energy companies led nine of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 to gains.
According to the AP, with little news to give them direction, traders continued to push indexes higher. That extended a rally from Dec. 17, when the Federal Reserve Bank said it was in no hurry to raise interest rates. “What a very crazy week,” said Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ.
At the start of the week, slumping oil prices and the state of the world economy were investors’ main worries. A plunge in the Russian currency, the ruble, added to a sense of unease. The turnaround came on Dec. 17, when Janet L. Yellen, the Fed chairwoman, said that she saw no reason to raise interest rates in early 2015, and that the central bank would be patient in deciding when to raise rates from near zero.
In other news, brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many United States refineries, rose $2.11 to close at $61.38 in London, and natural gas fell 17.8 cents to close at $3.464 per 1,000 cubic feet. Forecasts for a mild winter have pushed natural gas to its lowest price since November 2013.
