Wall Street rallies as oil prices trade below 130 USD

NEW YORK, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street continued its rally Thursday as oil prices traded below 130 U.S. dollars a barrel. The Dow Jones average rose more than 200 points.

Crude prices plunged more than 5 dollars to settle at 129.29 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on concerns of U.S. economic woes.

Upbeat earnings from big names like Coca-Cola, JPMorgan Chase and United Technologies also boosted the stocks although investors were still nervous about the health of the U.S. economy.

JPmorgan advanced for a second day trading after its results beat estimates by 10 cents a share. Its earnings indicated that investors perhaps had at times been overly dour in their assessment of financials.

Moreover, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that construction of homes and apartments rose in June by 9.1 percent. The gain boosted the market, as economists had expected a 1.5 percent decline.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 207.38 points to settle at 11,446.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 14.95 to 1,260.31 and the Nasdaq rose 27.45 to 2,312.30.