An afternoon surge in stocks, coming on the heels of a four-week rally, turned the Dow Jones industrial average positive for the year, wiping out losses from a terrible start to 2016. Materials and energy companies rose Thursday with the price of gold, silver, and oil. Industrial companies like Boeing and General Electric rose on hopes they'll be able to sell more products overseas as the dollar slid. Oil closed at $40.20, its highest level since early December.
The Dow rose 155 points, or 0.9%, to 17,481. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13 points to 2,040. The Nasdaq composite rose 11 points to 4,774. The S&P 500 is remains down for the year by 0.2% and the Nasdaq is down 4.6%. (More Dow Jones stories.)