Oil shares gain as Tesla overtakes GM in market value

New York - Petroleum-linked shares were gainers on Monday, while Tesla overtook General Motors as the biggest automaker by market value and US stocks finished slightly positive.

Oil-linked shares advanced in concert with a 1.6% rise in crude prices, with ExxonMobil adding 0.5%, Apache 2.6% and Transocean 2.6%.

Tesla Motors shot up 3.3% following an analyst upgrade by stocks analyst Piper Jaffray, a jump that allowed the electric-car maker to overtake GM in market capitalisation despite GM's much larger sales and revenues.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 20 658.02, up less than 0.1%.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.1% to 2 357.16, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also edged up 0.1% to 5 880.93.

Analysts cited a number of geopolitical questions that are crimping stock prices, including uncertainty over the Syria situation following last week's US bombings of the country, and anxiety over the upcoming French presidential election.

Markets are expected to soon focus on corporate earnings reports, which begin in earnest later this week.
Stocks with strong performances on the day included Caterpillar, which led the Dow with a 1.7% gain, Amazon which rose 1.4%, and Expedia which climbed 1.6%.

Wells Fargo dropped 0.6% after its board announced it was clawing back $75m in additional compensation from two executives responsible for its fake accounts scandal.

Whole Foods Market surged 10.0% on news that activist fund Jana Partners took about a nine percent stake in the company.

United Continental airline rose 0.9% despite heavy criticism of the airline on social media after it forcefully removed a passenger from a flight due to overbooking.