Wall Street closes higher on jobs data, oil rise

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) – Strong jobs data and rising crude oil prices helped Wall Street to a higher close Wednesday.

The Dow added 26 points to 19,890 and the S&P was flat – rising less than one point to 2,279.

The Nasdaq gained 27 points to finish at 5,642.

The private sector added 246,000 jobs in January – its strongest showing in the past seven months, according to payroll processor ADP Research Institute. And the manufacturing sector also had its strongest growth in two years, the Institute for Supply Management said.

Oil prices rose more than 1 percent. At the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 1.4 percent to $53.57, while international benchmark Brent crude was at $56.56 -- a 1.7 percent increase.

After announcing first quarter income and revenue gains Tuesday, Apple's stock price soared 6 percent Wednesday to close at $128.79 per share.

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