Wall Street closes higher with bank gains, oil rise

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - Wall Street closed higher Wednesday with rising bank shares and a boost in crude oil prices.

The Dow added 143 points to end trading at 21,454 and the Nasdaq rose 87 points to 6,234.

The S&P gained 21 points to finish the day at 2,440 -- its highest one-day gain in the past two months.

Shares of JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo each rose 2 percent while Bank of America was slightly higher at 2.6 percent.

The stock market also benefitted from an increase in oil prices after U.S. weekly crude production fell substantially.

Crude output posted a decline of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.25 million bpd, for the week ending June 23, according to the Energy Information Administration.

At the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 1.2 percent to $44, and international benchmark Brent crude was at $47.59 per barrel -- a 1.5 percent increase.