NEW YORK — The stock market reversed steep declines and ended slightly higher Wednesday, thanks in part to a pickup in the price of crude oil.
Indexes continue to be weighed down by bank stocks, which remain under pressure because of economic unease and worries about the amount of loans on their books to struggling oil and gas companies.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 53.21 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,484.99. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 8.53 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,929.80 and the Nasdaq composite rose 39.02 points, or 0.9 percent, to 4,542.61.
Stocks had been dramatically lower earlier in the day, with the Dow down as much as 265 points. However as oil prices recovered through the day, so did energy stocks and the broader market.
After being down nearly 4 percent earlier, oil closed up 28 cents, or 1 percent, to $32.15 a barrel. The energy component of the S&P 500, which had been down roughly 2 percent, closed up 1 percent.
“As goes oil, so goes everything,” said Ian Winer, co-head of equities trading at Wedbush Securities.
The market’s only place of weakness by the end of trading was the financial sector. Bank stocks had some of the biggest losses, and the financial services component of the S&P 500 lost 0.8 percent.
Despite substantial gains in recent days, many investors remain hesitant to commit more money to the market and don’t need much reason to sell, analysts say. Bank stocks are often a proxy for how well an economy is expected to do, because loans can sour during an economic slowdown.
While oil rose Tuesday, the pressure on the commodity prices seems to be downward. While oil rose 1 percent Wednesday, crude fell 4 percent the day before after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister told a meeting of energy leaders in Houston that production cuts aimed at supporting falling crude prices won’t work. He said the market should let some operators go out of business.
