NEW YORK - Wall Street rallied Monday after Hurricane Katrina weakened, easing concerns about refinery outages along the Gulf of Mexico and pulling oil prices back from record highs.
Investors found some relief in reports that President Bush was mulling whether to offset the supply disruption with oil from the nation's petroleum reserve, but energy and insurance stocks still came under pressure as the market tried to gauge the hurricane's financial impact.
Jim Dunigan, the chief investment officer for PNC Advisors, said the market had braced for the storm's blow and started looking elsewhere for direction after the Gulf Coast got "hit full force and survived."
"It's not likely this is going to have a significant impact on growth," Mr. Dunigan said. "If it's not going to have a significant impact on energy, we're still in pretty good shape."
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 65.76, or 0.63 percent, to close at 10,463.05. Last Friday, the Dow had its lowest close in seven weeks.
The broader stock indicators also moved higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 7.18, or 0.6 percent, to 1,212.28, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 16.88, or 0.80 percent, to 2,137.65.
While declining issues outpaced advancers through most of the session, the market shifted in afternoon trading and finished with advancers leading decliners by 5 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE volume of 1.22 billion shares compared with 1.19 billion traded Friday.
Bonds closed higher, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note falling to 4.17 percent from 4.19 percent Friday. The U.S. dollar was mixed against other major currencies in European trading, while gold prices slipped.
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