US Stocks Fluctuate as Oil Prices Stabilize; Wells Fargo Under Scrutiny

New York (Sept 29)  Stocks fluctuated on Thursday as equities and oil stabilized after a late-session rally a day earlier. The S&P 500 was down 0.04%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.06%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.34%.

Crude oil stabilized after big gains seen on Wednesday as traders questioned how much of an impact a deal among Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would have on an oversupplied market. OPEC agreed to limit oil production to 32.5 million barrels a day following a three-day energy meeting in Algeria. Members had shown reluctance to agree to any deal and cede market share.

"Let's not forget non-OPEC producers who would not be subject to any such agreement if it were indeed actually ratified," Stephen Guilfoyle, chief market economist at Stuart Frankel & Co., wrote in a note. "Curtailing output could just be handing over market share to others who will gladly seize it."

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.4% to $47.18 a barrel on Thursday after settling Wednesday at its best level in three weeks.  Technical analyst Helene Meisler of Real Money, TheStreet's premium site for active traders, writes that a sustained move upward for oil would help the S&P 500 break out of a trading range that it's been stuck in since July. Click here to check out her latest technical read of the market.

Wells Fargo (WFC) CEO John Stumpf was under Capitol Hill scrutiny again on Thursday, arguing that there had been no "orchestrated effort" of customer fraud. The bank has been under pressure to explain and correct a recent scandal wherein its retail-banking division created up to 2 million unauthorized customer accounts to meet sales targets. The bank has since agreed to a $185 million settlement with government officials over a sales fraud investigation.

Source: TheStreet