Wall Street ends higher, buoyed by drop in oil

Wall Street rebounded Thursday, rising sharply as oil prices fell and investors took advantage of bargains in financial stocks after two straight days of heavy declines. The Dow Jones industrial index rose 82.97, or 0.72 percent, to close at 11,615.93.

A pullback in crude prices helped reassure stock traders who are concerned that rising oil and gas prices would force consumers to keep paring back their spending.

Stocks initially fell after the Labor Department reported another hefty jump in consumer prices, but turned higher as investors began looking more positively at stock prices that were beaten down the past two sessions amid rising anxiety about credit losses at banks and brokerages.