NEW YORK, June 23 (UPI) -- U.S. stocks, spurred by last-hour buying, ended higher Wednesday with the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index closing above the 2,000 mark.
Stocks traded higher throughout the day. The late hour buying, brought on by a drop in crude oil prices, put the icing on the cake.
The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average jumped 84.50 points, or 0.81 percent, to close at 10,479.57 on a trading volume of 1.52 billion shares.
Nasdaq added 26.83 points, or 1.35 percent, to close at 2,020.98 on 1.59 billion shares.
The Standard and Poor's 500-stock index gained 9.63 points, or 0.85 percent, to close at 1,144.04.
Crude oil for August delivery lost 68 cents to $37.65 a barrel because of rising U.S. inventories.
In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury note rose 5/32 or about $1.25 for each $1,000 invested to 100 11/32, with the yield dropping to 4.70 percent.
The dollar was mixed. It traded at 108.56 against the Japanese yen, down from 109.31, while the euro fell to $1.2086 from $1.21.
In other news, the Federal Trade Commission approved the merger of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and British American Tobacco U.S. subsidiary Brown & Williamson.
In Europe, prices ended higher in London, Paris, Frankfurt Milan, Amsterdam, Spain and Stockholm but eased in Zurich. In Asia, stocks eased slightly in Tokyo, South Korea and China but inched higher in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
