Wall Street closes higher with oil rise, strong growth

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK

Wall Street closed higher Thursday with rising oil prices and stronger than expected quarterly growth numbers.

The Dow added 69 points to end the day at 20,728, while the S&P 500 gained six points to 2,368.

The Nasdaq increased 16 points to finish at 5,914.

At the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was trading at $50.34 -- a 1.7 percent increase. International benchmark Brent crude was up 1.1 percent to $53.12.

The U.S. economy grew 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the Commerce Department. That figure beat market expectations of a 2 percent growth increase.