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.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent, to 6,824, the Dow also rose 0.6 percent, to 48,185, while the Nasdaq gained 0.8 percent, to 22,822.

The main US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, jumped above US$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 US$98.87 a barrel.

Just 10 vessels have passed through Strait of Hormuz since the Middle East war ceasefire took effect, according to maritime tracking data..

Anthony Kettle at RBC BlueBay Asset Management cautioned: "Even if the ceasefire holds, it will take time for energy exports from the region to return to more normalised levels, so there will be an impact on growth and inflation that is still difficult to ascertain."(AFP)



Edited by Azam Khan