US stock indexes gain in quiet trading; oil price surges

NEW YORK (AP) — A jump in the price of crude oil helped send Chevron, Exxon Mobil and other energy giants up on today. A weak jobs report late last week also heightened speculation that the Federal Reserve would be slow to raise interest rates this year.

As of 3:15 p.m. Eastern time, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 17 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,083. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 143 points, or 0.8 percent, to 17,907, and the Nasdaq composite rose 32 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,919.

The stock market was closed Friday when the Labor Department reported that employers added just 126,000 workers to their payrolls in March, the smallest increase since December 2013. The report was another sign of weaker economic growth in the winter months and added more pressure on the Federal Reserve to put off raising interest rates. Historically low rates have helped fuel the stock market's long run.