Wall Street closes with record highs, oil prices go up

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - Two of the three major indexes in Wall Street closed at record-high levels as oil prices increased on Monday.

Crude prices soared around 2 percent after Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed earlier on Monday to extend their oil production limitation deal until March 30, in an attempt to increase low oil prices and trim the oversupply in the global oil market.

At the final bell, the American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was trading at $48.95 a barrel with a 2.1 percent gain. International benchmark Brent crude was up 1.9 percent at $51.90 per barrel.

The Dow increased 85 points to finish the day at 20,981.

The S&P rose 11 points to end trading at 2,402 and the Nasdaq added 28 points to 6,149 -- both reaching their all-time closing highs.

The two indexes also broke new record high levels during trading hours. The S&P climbed as high as 2,404 points, while the Nasdaq soared as high as 6,153 points.