Oil, mining lift New York markets

The equities markets were up at midday in New York, with a huge boost from the oil sector as crude oil prices once again increased due to concerns about conditions in Nigerian and Iran and further help from miners as raw materials prices continued to rise.

By mid-session the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.5 percent to 11,177.92, the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.1 percent to 2,341.34, and the S&P 500 gained 0.4 percent to 1,300.06.

Among miners and other companies dealing in metals, gold prices near $600 per troy ounce sent Newmont Mining up 1 percent on the day to $53.28 on top of a 1.6 percent gain last week. Aluminium company Alcoa added 1.3 percent to $32.92 in anticipation of its earnings report due after the close today. Alcoa was also helped out by the announcement of a joint venture in China in which it will purchase 70 percent of an aluminium sheet plant as part of a plant to improve sales to automobile manufacturers in Asia.

In the oil sector, oil producers and field service providers saw advances. ExxonMobil gained 1.1 percent to $61.98. Chevron was up 1.6 percent to $59.59. Halliburton and Occidental Petroleum each added 2.2 percent, to $78.94 and $97.25 respectively.

Video rental chain Blockbuster was up 9.8 percent to $4.60 on an upgrade from “hold” to “buy” from Citigroup. Netflix also benefited from the upgrade with a 2 percent rise to $28.09.

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