NEW YORK, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street regained some ground Wednesday, after Goldman Sachs' prediction of higher oil prices sent energy shares higher.
Light, sweet crude rose 45 cents to 114.98 U.S. dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after Goldman Sachs maintained its forecast that crude price will reach 149 dollars a barrel by the end of the year. Devon Energy Co., the biggest independent U.S. oil producer, and National Oil well-Varco, the world's largest maker of drilling equipment, rallied after the report.
Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest personal-computer marker, reported that its fiscal third-quarter earnings rose 14 percent on robust notebooks sales and strong international demand. HP led Dow Jones Industrial Average higher.
However, investors still worried about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Wall street was concerned that the government will take over the mortgage financiers. And Goldman Sachs slashed earnings estimates for banks and brokerage firms.
The Dow Jones rose 68.88, or 0.61 percent, to 11,417.43. Broader indexes also traded higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 7.85, or 0.62 percent, to 1,274.54; and the Nasdaq rose 4.72, or 0.20 percent, to 2,389.08.
