Investing.com – Wall Street rose on Thursday amid expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut, while a suspected attack in the Persian Gulf caused the price of crude oil to skyrocket.
Crude prices jumped 3.5% a barrel, just one day after hitting five-month lows, after two tankers were allegedly attacked in the Gulf of Oman, through which a fifth of global oil passes.
The news helped lift oil stocks, with Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) up 1.4% and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) gaining 1.2%.
"There is a positive correlation between stock markets and oil prices which is the day's catalyst," Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Dow gained 124 points or 0.5% by 9:44 AM ET (13:44 GMT), while the S&P 500 rose 13 points or 0.5% and tech-heavy Nasdaq composite jumped 48 points or 0.6%.
Meanwhile investors have turned to equities on hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut rates in the coming months, after moderate inflation data on Wednesday and growing trade tensions.
The Fed is expected to keep rates steady at its next meeting June 19, but investors have priced in a 84.8% chance of a cut in July.
Technology stocks rose, with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) up 0.7%, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gaining 0.8% and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) up 0.9%. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) inched up 0.3%, while Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) gained 0.6% on news that it has filed for a Hong Kong initial public offering.
Uber (NYSE:UBER) jumped 2.9% while Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) surged 3.1% after Evercore initiated coverage of the ride-hailing companies at overweight.
Elsewhere, Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) fell 1.8% while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was down 0.5%.
In other commodities, gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,339.55 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched up 0.1% to 97.032.
-Reuters contributed to this report.