US stocks close higher as oil prices pull back

NEW YORK, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday as a pullback in oil prices and renewed optimism around artificial intelligence lifted sentiment.

Traders work on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the United States, on Aug. 11, 2026. U.S. stocks ended lower on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 478.64 points, or 0.93 percent, to 51,828.62. The S&P 500 added 39.28 points, or 0.51 percent, to 7,743.41. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 129.343 points, or 0.48 percent, to 27,068.716.

Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with technology and industrials leading the gainers by adding 0.99 percent and 0.94 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, energy and communication services led the laggards by falling 0.87 percent and 0.65 percent, respectively.

West Texas Intermediate crude slipped toward 92 U.S. dollars a barrel, while Brent crude for November delivery lost 2.28 dollars, or 2.14 percent, to settle at 104.32 dollars a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Investors also weighed a more hawkish outlook for Federal Reserve policy. According to the CME FedWatch, traders now see about a 70 percent chance of another quarter-point rate hike at the Fed's October meeting, up from 50 percent earlier in the week, as strong economic data and hawkish comments from policymakers reinforced expectations that interest rates could stay higher for longer.

On the economic front, new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods were essentially unchanged at 338.6 billion dollars in August, beating expectations of a small decline, the Commerce Department reported.

Orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business investment, jumped 1.6 percent. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell to 48.1 in September from 51.7 in August, declining less than expected, while inflation expectations increased.

On the corporate front, Akamai Technologies was up 3.2 percent after announcing Anthropic is committed to paying it at least 11.6 billion dollars over seven years for cloud infrastructure and software. Microsoft climbed 3.66 percent following the company's Copilot super-app launch, while Meta Platforms fell more than 3 percent, giving back part of Thursday's 4.5-percent rally after its Connect developer conference.

Costco Wholesale Corporation gained nearly 3 percent after reporting fiscal fourth-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations, with earnings per share of 6.75 dollars and revenue of 95.72 billion dollars. The results included a non-recurring benefit of 0.15 dollar per share from tariff refunds.