Wall Street up as oil hits highest level in 2016

Crude oil prices climbed to their highest level of the year and pushed Wall Street Wall Street to a higher close Wednesday.

At the final bell, the Dow Jones was up 42 points to 18,096. The S&P 500 added one point to end the day at 2,102 and the Nasdaq gained 7 points to finish at 4,948.

As a three-day oil workers strike in Kuwait came to an end, it brought back worries of oversupply in the market and pushed prices lower during early trading.

But rumors that oil producers could meet in Moscow next month for another attempt at trimming output, coupled with a weekly rise in U.S. crude inventories, carried prices to new highs this year.

American West Texas Intermediate was up more than 3 percent to as high as $44.24 per barrel during the day, while international benchmark Brent crude gained 3 percent to as high as $45.88.

Both benchmarks recorded their highest levels for the year.

Meanwhile, Existing Home Sales in March rose 5.1 percent, beating market expectations of 4 percent.