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Dow shakes off morning malaise, climbs 122

Adam Shell
USA TODAY

Stocks rose Wednesday, with the S&P 500 nearing the 2000 mark and the Dow gaining 122 points.

Chart watchers are eyeing the key 2000 level on the Standard & Poor's 500 index, as that level now is viewed as a ceiling of sorts for stocks as they look to rebound further. A break above 2000 would boost hopes that the uptrend that began in earnest Friday has legs and that the market is regaining its bullish stance.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on October 5, 2015. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

After nosing into the red in late-morning trading, all three major benchmarks climbed back into the black. The S&P 500 finished up 16 points, or 0.8%, to 1996 after jumping as high as 1999 earlier in the session. The S&P 500, which has been attempting a rebound from its late summer lows, saw its five-day winning streak snapped Tuesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which eked out a 14-point gain Tuesday, ended up 0.7% after earlier climbing as high as 175 points above break-even. The tech-packed Nasdaq composite finished up 0.9%.

Traders got an early boost from a nearly 2% jump in the price of U.S.-produced crude oil which put the price of a barrel of crude within about 50 cents or so of $50 a barrel. This gains were cut after the government reported oil inventories in the U.S. rose by 3.1 million barrels as demand dipped. U.S. benchmark crude was trading flat at $48.52 a barrel.

S&P 500 makes run at key 2000 milestone

Traders were also bracing for the unofficial start of the third-quarter earnings season, which kicks off with very low expectations Thursday when aluminum maker Alcoa (AA) reports. For the third straight month, the profit-reporting season begins with Wall Street analysts predicting a contraction in earnings. However, many Wall Street pros expect companies in the S&P 500 to top the lowered expectations, as they did in the first two quarters of 2015.

Chart watchers are eyeing the key 2000 level on the S&P 500, as that level now is viewed as a ceiling of sorts for stocks as they look to rebound further. A break above 2000 would boost hopes that the uptrend that began in earnest Friday has legs and that the market is regaining its bullish stance.

Another possible market-moving event occurs Thursday, when the Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its September meeting, when it opted not to hike short-term interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. Stocks, of course, have been hurt by uncertainty surrounding the start of rate hikes. But have recently gotten a boost after Friday's weak jobs report resulted in Wall Street pushing out so-called Fed "lift-off" into early 2016.

Global stocks rose as markets continued to trend higher after a late-summer and early fall swoon. Shares of Japan's Nikkei 225 were up 0.8%, while stocks in Hong Kong's Hang Seng index soared 3.1%.

European stocks also gave back strong early gains and were trading only slightly higher. The CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.1% and London's FTSE 100 gained 0.2%. Germany's DAX index gained 0.7%.

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