Oil Drops, Stocks Rise

A slight dip in oil prices was enough to send stock prices soaring Monday. All of our indexes gained 1% to 1.5%. But another regional economic report provided more evidence the economy may be slowing.

The InformationWeek 100 index rose 2.83 points, or nearly 1.1%, to close at 265.22, while the Nasdaq composite rose 25.62 points, or nearly 1.5%, to 1,782.84. The Dow rose 129.20 points, or more than 1.3%, to close at 9,954.55, and the S&P 500 rose 14.54 points, or nearly 1.4%, to finish the day at 1,079.34.

The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock closed at $33.01, up 49 cents, or more than 1.5%, on light trading volume of more than 73 million shares.

The price of light crude oil for September fell 53 cents to $46.05 a barrel in trading in New York. Analysts attributed that, in part, to Venezuelan election results, which kept President Hugo Chavez in power and reduced worries about interruptions in that country's oil flow.

But the New York Empire State index, which provides a snapshot of regional manufacturing activity, fell to 12.6 in August from 35.8 in July. Analysts had expected the index to drop by just a couple of points.

See the full listing of all the companies in the InformationWeek 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing here.