Wall Street rises to recover some of last weeks loss as oil prices ease WHIO TV 7 and WHIO Radio [Video]

NEW YORK — (AP) — U.S. stocks are ticking higher, and oil prices are easing Monday with hopes that international efforts to calm escalating tensions in the Middle East may help. The latest report on the U.S. economy to blow past expectations also helped support financial markets.

The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in afternoon trading to recover some of its loss from last week, which was its worst since October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 163 points, or 0.4%, as of 12:01 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.

Goldman Sachs rose 3.7% and helped financial companies climb to some of the market’s biggest gains after reporting stronger profit for the start of the year than analysts expected. The pressure is on companies broadly to deliver fatter profits because the other lever that sets stock prices, interest rates, looks less likely to offer support in the near term.

A measure of nervousness in the stock market …