US stock market opens higher

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) – The U.S. stock market opened higher Wednesday with gains in the price of crude oil.

The Dow Jones rose 52 points to begin the day at 18,281 and the S&P 500 was up three points at 2,163. The Nasdaq increased five points to start the day at 5,310.

At the first bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 1.4 percent to $45.31 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $47.27 a barrel with a 1.6 percent increase.

Oil market and investors are focusing on talks between OPEC and Russia in Algeria later Wednesday.

Oil prices could increase if parties agree to curb their individual output levels in order to trim the glut of supply in the global oil market, according to experts.