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U.S. stocks open higher as oil prices rally

Xinhua, May 15, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday, as Wall Street cheered over soaring oil prices.

Oil prices rallied in the early trading on Monday, after the Saudi Arabian and Russian energy ministers said that an OPEC-led crude production cut would be extended from the middle of this year until March 2018.

OPEC is due to meet in Vienna on May 25.

The West Texas Intermediate for June delivery traded at 49.53 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 3.53 percent, while Brent crude for July delivery was around 52.51 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange, rising 3.28 percent.

Meanwhile, this earnings season has been strong so far. The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the first quarter of 2017 are expected to rise 14.7 percent year-on-year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 7.3 percent.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 56.82 points, or 0.27 percent, to 20,953.43. The S&P 500 rose 6.25 points, or 0.26 percent, to 2,397.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 13.66 points, or 0.22 percent, to 6,134.89.

U.S. stocks traded mixed for the last week as investors digested a batch of first-quarter earnings reports and key speeches from Federal Reserve officials. Endi