Crude oil futures traded above the psychological $50 mark. Stocks gained on markets worldwide on Tuesday, helped by buoyant oil prices touching a 2016 high, a day after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen pushed back expectations for a rate increase without raising concerns over the strength of the world's largest economy, Reuters reported. Crude oil futures traded above the psychological $50 mark, hitting eight-month highs, finding support from a weaker U.S. dollar that wallowed near a four-week low. The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 45 nations, rose to the highest in more than six weeks. Helping oil prices rally were worries over potential supply shortages from attacks on Nigeria's oil industry and expectations of a likely drop in U.S. crude stockpiles, its third decline in as many weeks. The price of oil has nearly doubled since January, boosted largely by a spate of unplanned outages that have eroded production in Canada, Venezuela, Libya and Nigeria, along with a steady decline in higher-cost U.S. shale output. Strength in energy shares pushed the S&P 500 index to within 16 points of its record high and the Dow Jones industrial average above 18,000 for the first time since April. Chevron rose 2.3 percent and Exxon gained as much as 1.6 percent to a 52-week high of $90.77. The Dow was up 71.91 points, or 0.4 percent, at 17,992.24, the S&P 500 rose 8.22 points, or 0.39 percent, at 2,117.63 and the Nasdaq Composite was added 4.25 points, or 0.09 percent, at 4,972.97. Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index closed up 1.19 percent at 1,360.25, taking cues from Yellen's remarks Monday and helped by improving sentiment due to the firmer oil prices. The MSCI world equity index was up 0.75 percent, on pace for its fourth session of gains. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was last down 0.09 percent to 93.814 as investors speculate on the timing on a U.S. rate increase following Yellen's comments Monday. In the bond market, the U.S. Treasury Department sold $24 billion of three-year notes at a yield of 0.930 percent, the highest yield at an auction of this maturity since March, according to Treasury data. Benchmark 10-year notes were last up 5/32 in price to yield 1.7074 percent, down from 1.723 percent late on Monday. The yields have risen from two-month lows of 1.697 percent hit on Friday. Brent crude settled up 89 cents, or 1.76 percent at $51.44 a barrel, while U.S. crude settled up 67 cents, or 1.35 percent, at $50.36. Gold was little changed as investors paused after the metal's recent rally. Spot gold prices were up 0.06 percent to $1,245.51 an ounce, near a 2-week high.
