US open: Stocks egde higher as oil prices rally

US stocks gained on Friday as oil prices rallied after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the US was headed for more economic growth.

At 1430 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.60%, the S&P 500 increased 0.71% and the Nasdaq climbed 0.72%.

Speaking at a panel before former Fed Chairs Ben Bernanke, Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan at the International House in New York on Thursday, Yellen touted the strength of the labour market and rebuffed suggestions that an economic bubble is about to burst.

"I certainly wouldn't describe this as a bubble economy," Yellen said, responding to Republican presidential contender Donald Trump's claims.

"The US economy has continued to progress in a satisfactory way. We continue to see good job performance, some evidence of inflation moving up, so that was our expectation when we raised rates in December.”

Oil prices jumped on optimism about the US economy and hopes of an agreement between global producers at a meeting in Doha on 17 April. At 1414 BST, West Texas Intermediate crude surged 5.2% to $49.34 per barrel and Brent rose 4.6% to $41.36 per barrel.

In economic data, there is little on the agenda with the only notable release being the US wholesale inventories report at 1500 BST.

“Frustratingly there isn’t much for the US index to work with this afternoon either, a speech from Fed vice-chair William Dudley arguably the only thing of note,” said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex.

In currency markets, the yen was softer after Japanese finance minister Taro Aso said he might act against what he called one-sided yen rises, having surged to a 17-month high versus the greenback in the previous session.

The dollar was down 0.31% versus the pound, flat against the euro and 0.55% firmer versus the yen.

On the corporate front, Gap was under the cosh after the retailer posted a drop in March sales late on Thursday.

Restaurant operator Ruby Tuesday plunged as its latest quarterly earnings missed expectations.

Depomed Inc advanced after Starboard Value disclosed that the company and its affiliates own 9.8% of Depomed’s outstanding shares.