Stocks lift even as oil prices soar to $122 a barrel

Extending its sharp ascent, crude oil climbed past $122 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as traders reacted to the weakening U.S. dollar and the possibility of supply threats. In midday trading, it was up $1.29 at $122.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

High oil prices threaten to weigh on consumers' discretionary spending.

But the stock market pared steep early losses, with investors apparently looking past Tuesday's downbeat news, which included not only high oil prices but also wider-than-expected quarterly losses at Swiss bank UBS, government-sponsored mortgage company Fannie Mae and homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc.

Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research, said it is a good sign that stock traders started buying again when the Standard & Poor's briefly dipped below the technically significant 1,400 market.

"We had some negative news this morning, and we've shaken it off. It's encouraging," Detrick said. He added, though, that investors seem anxious about computer networking equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc.'s quarterly results after the market closes.

In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.68, or 0.11 percent, to 12,983.22.

Broader stock indicators also rebounded. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.23, or 0.44 percent, to 1,413.72, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 10.43, or 0.42 percent, to 2,474.55.

Bond prices edged higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, dipped to 3.86 percent from 3.87 percent late Monday.

In recent weeks, stronger-than-expected results from companies outside the battered financial and housing sectors helped the stock market rebound late last week to levels not seen since early January.