Wall Street shares shrug off early loses to close up
(Closed): US stocks closed higher, lifted by strong earnings from toy company Hasbro and a recovery in oil.
The Dow Jones rose 106.7 points to 18,004.16, its first close above 18,000 since July.
Markets shook off early losses caused by a drop in the oil price after a meeting of oil producers failed to reach a dealnt to cap output.
News that Kuwaiti oil-workers were on strike helped bring the price of crude oil back up from severe lows.
Toymaker Hasbro rose 5.8% after it reported stronger-than-expected profits and revenues for the first quarter.
Net income jumped to $48.8m from $26.7m a year earlier, with net revenue up 16.5% to $831.2m. The toy company was helped by strong demand for Star Wars, Frozen and Disney Princess toys.
The news also helped lift shares of Walt Disney by 2.9%.
Shares in Morgan Stanley fell 0.12% after the bank reported a 54% fall in net profit to $1.1bn but beat earnings forecasts.