NEW YORK — Rising corporate profits and a jump in oil prices helped push the stock market to a modest gain on Wednesday. Delta and Intel led the way up after turning in results that beat Wall Street’s forecasts. The price of oil soared to its highest price this year, driving up energy stocks.
For investors, any good news comes as a welcome surprise this earnings season, which is widely expected to be the worst in years. Analysts predict that companies in the S&P 500 will report a 3 percent drop in profits. Most of the blame lies with the slump in oil prices over the past year.
The Standard &Poor’s 500 index rose 10.79 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 2,106.63.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 75.91 points, or 0.4 percent, to 18,112.61, while the Nasdaq composite added 33.73 points, or 0.7 percent, to 5,011.02.
Crude oil jumped $3.10 to settle at $56.39, hitting its highest price this year, after the Energy Department said that storage of crude rose by the smallest amount in three months.