NEW YORK - Wall Street stocks finished higher on Thursday after a shaky start, adopting an optimistic view of the Middle East ceasefire despite largely stalled traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which boosted oil prices.
After surging on Wednesday following the announcement of an Iran-US truce ceasefire, US stocks pulled back in the early going amid continued clashes between Israel and Lebanon and extremely limited tanker traffic in the Hormuz Strait despite the ceasefire.
But US stocks moved into positive territory in late morning and rose further as the session progressed. Some commentators said the confirmation of talks next week between Israel and Lebanon had driven shares higher.
"We don't actually have a full ceasefire yet, but the market's a forward-looking mechanism and it's trading as if the deal's pretty much done," said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments.
The main US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, jumped above $100 a barrel before dipping once again as international calls mounted for the ceasefire to be extended after a massive wave of Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed more than 200 people.
WTI finished the day up 3.7 percent at $98.87 a barrel.
Earlier, Europe's main markets closed down, Frankfurt shedding just north of one percent.
Asian markets had also finished in the red.