NEW YORK, May 12 (UPI) -- U.S. stock indexes climbed to the close Monday as oil prices retreated on a day with no major economic reports released.

The retreat of oil, down $2 per barrel from Friday, signaled some profit-taking but also kept inflation worries at bay for a day.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 130.43 points Monday 12,876.31, up 1.02 percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 index rose 15.30 points to 1,403.58, up 1.1 percent. The Nasdaq composite index increased by 42.97 points to 2,488.49, up 1.76 percent

On the New York Stock Exchange, 2,237 stocks advanced and 886 declined on a volume of 1.05 billion shares traded.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 6/32 to yield 3.799 percent.

The euro traded at $1.5538 from Friday's $1.5483 and the dollar traded at 103.87 yen from Friday's 102.97 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index gained 88.02 points to 13,743.36, up 0.64 percent.

In London, the FTSE 100 index gained 15.90 points to 6,220.60, up 0.26 percent.

Copper prices prompting wave of thefts

WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- The soaring price of copper has triggered a rash of copper thefts in the United States, authorities, art dealers and utility companies say.

Copper prices have jumped from about 83 cents per pound to between $3 and $4 a pound since 2000, prompting thieves to make off with everything from sculptures to spools of electric wire to gravestone plaques, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported.

In Moberly, Mo., a scrap dealer Dave Fusselman called the police after thieves tried to sell him large patch of copper caps, which turned out to have been stolen from a munitions factory. One of the accused now could receive a sentence of 245 years, as the crime is categorized as a theft of munitions during wartime, the Post reported.

Others have risked their lives by attempting to steal electric wiring while it was in use.

Power demands pushing metal prices up

WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- A global increase in energy demands have triggered price jumps in metals, as power shortages from Chile to South Africa have limited production, analysts say.

The power it takes to run an aluminum smelter in China could supply 2 million people with enough power for a year, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Power shortages have contributed to price increases in platinum, aluminum, and copper, up 24, 21 and 26 percent this year respectively, the report said.

"There will be a sustained level of risk from power shortages in the commodities markets," Michael Lewis, the head of commodities research at Deutsche Bank told the Post.

"We are pricing bigger supply losses as a result," he said.

The demand for metals may have waned in the United States, where consumer spending is down, but emerging markets are keeping global demand intact, analysts said.

"To allow China and India to have a middle class, we need to go back to the drawing board and boost investments in power infrastructure, " Francisco Blanch, a commodities researcher at Merrill Lynch (AMEX:BXA) said.

"And if this doesn't happen, we're going to see even more brown-outs," Blanch said.

GM cutting 1,400 jobs in Canada in 2010

WINDSOR, Ontario, May 12 (UPI) -- General Motors (NYSE:BGM) of Canada President Arturo Elias announced Monday a transmission plant closure in the Ontario city of Windsor will cut 1,400 jobs in 2010.

In a statement, Elias said after contract talks with the Canadian Auto Workers union, there were "no available replacement products in the relevant time frame for this location," the Globe and Mail reported.

Within the last two weeks, GM Canada also announced the closing of a shift and lay-off of 900 workers at its pickup truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario, in September.

Union president Buzz Hargrove told reporters the union couldn't make the closure a strike issue because the CAW also couldn't identify anything else the 63-year-old plant could manufacture, The Toronto Star reported.

The Windsor plant assembles four-speed transmissions for Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Vue and Aura vehicles, but the GM statement said the market is shifting to more fuel-efficient six-speed transmissions. The Star said.