US stocks rally as banks gain and oil prices rise

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rallied Thursday, with banking and oil shares gaining, as US fourth-quarter growth was upgraded and oil prices rose above $50 a barrel.

Investors took heart after the US Commerce Department revised GDP growth up by 0.2 points to 2.1 percent for the final three months of last year, due in part to more robust personal consumption spending.

Analysts also cited gains in the oil market, which closed above $50 in the US for the first time in more than three weeks after Kuwait's oil minister endorsed OPEC output curbs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 percent the close the trading session at 20,728.49.

Likewise, the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.3 percent to end at 2,368.06, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also rose 0.3 percent to 5,914.34.

Bank of America gained 2.3 percent, while other leading banks including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs climbed more than one percent.

Yoga and athletic attire company Lululemon Athletica sank 23.4 percent as it projected first-quarter sales and profits well below analyst expectations and said it experienced a "slow" start to 2017.

Other companies that sell athletic apparel were pressured as well, including Nike, which lost 1.2 percent, and Under Armour, which shed 2.3 percent.

ConocoPhillips jumped 8.8 percent after announcing a deal to sell 50 percent of the Foster Creek Christina Lake oil sands project, as well as some Canadian natural gas assets, to Cenovus for $13.3 billion.

Cenovus slumped 13.7 percent as the DBRS rating agency placed the company under review for a possible credit rating downgrade.