Wall Street closes higher as crude prices recover

NEW YORK (AA) - Wall Street closed higher Thursday as oil prices recovered earlier losses.

The Dow Jones was up 49 points to end the day at 17,838. The S&P 500 increased 6 points to close at 2,105 while the Nasdaq was up 19 points to end at 4,971.

The S&P 500 finished above 2,100 points for the first time since April, and reached its highest level in the last seven months.

Oil prices were down after OPEC failed in its biannual meeting in Vienna to decide on an official output quota, which created a bearish sentiment among investors that oversupply is to remain in the global oil market.

But prices pared back later in the day as the outcome from OPEC meeting was highly anticipated and U.S. weekly crude oil inventories declined once again.

Commercial crude oil stocks fell by 1.4 million barrels, or 0.3 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration data.

Before the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up as high as $49.47 a barrel and international benchmark, Brent crude, climbed to $50.30 per barrel.