Oil surges 4 percent, helping Wall Street hit record peaks

By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks in the United States and Europe raced higher on Thursday helped by encouraging corporate reports and a 4 percent surge in oil prices on comments from the Saudi oil minister and a forecast for a tighter crude market. The energy sector was the best-performing major S&P group, up 1.3 percent, buoyed by the rise in oil prices.