Oil Closes Over $100 as Stock Markets Soar

Larry Smith/Trans Pixs

Oil closed over $100 a barrel Wednesday for just the second time since June on an improved economic picture and soaring stock markets, Bloomberg reported.

Benchmark light sweet crude futures rose 57 cents to finish the New York Mercantile Exchange trading day at $100.36 a barrel, Bloomberg said.

Oil had last finished over $100 on Nov. 16, for just the first time since June. Prices held over $100 in early trading Thursday, Bloomberg reported.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped almost 500 points Wednesday, a 4.2% gain, its biggest gain in since March 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Oil inventories jumped by 3.9 million barrels last week, the Department of Energy reported Wednesday — well over the 50,000-barrel gain that had been forecast by analysts, Bloomberg said.

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YRC Shareholders Approve Reverse Stock Split

YRC Worldwide’s shareholders approved a reverse split that would boost its per-share price by rolling each 300 shares held into one share.

As a result, the less-than-truckload carrier’s outstanding shares would drop to about 6.8 million from nearly 2 billion, the company said.

The vote authorizes YRC’s board to make the change, which could raise the stock to about $12 per share, from the 3 cents per share closing price Wednesday.

A stock price increase removes the prospect of delisting on the Nasdaq National Market, which YRC faced because its stock had fallen below $1 a share for 30 days.

The split will be effective on the Nasdaq on Friday, when its ticker symbol will change temporarily from to “YRCWD,” from “YRCW.” It will revert back to YRCW on Jan. 3.

YRC Worldwide is ranked No. 4 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

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