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Rising oil prices sent crude and energy shares higher. CNOOC Ltd., China's main offshore oil and gas producer, bounced 1.5 percent higher. Shanghai-listed Shanxi Guoyang New Energy Co. Ltd. rose 2.9 percent. Stock-buying continues despite repeated signals of economic distress from Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have needed bailouts from their neighbors because of their high debt loads, and investors worry that more will have to be done to rescue the Greek economy. The U.S., too, has a debt crisis. The world's No. 1 economy reached its $14.3 trillion limit on federal borrowing Monday, leaving Congress 11 weeks to raise the borrowing threshold or risk a financial panic or another recession. Meanwhile, stubbornly high inflation in China and India has led their central banks to hike interest rates and take other measures to contain the problem, but with questionable success. Such measures are often unwelcome by investors, who regard them as antigrowth. On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve said U.S. factories produced fewer goods in April for the first time in 10 months. If the decline continues, it could cut into the earnings of companies that make industrial equipment. The Commerce Department also reported that construction of new homes plunged. The Dow lost 68.79 points to 12,479.58. The S&P 500 lost less than 1 point to 1,328.98. The Nasdaq rose less than 1 point to 2,783.21. Benchmark crude for June delivery was up $1.69 to $98.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 47 cents to settle at $96.91 per barrel on Tuesday. In currencies, the euro strengthened to $1.4272 from $1.4229 in late trading Tuesday in New York. The dollar weakened to 81.06 yen from 81.43 yen.
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