Wall St. hits record highs as investors buy department stores

Wall Street stocks ended at record highs on Thursday as surging oil prices and strong earnings from department stores Macy's and Kohl's buoyed investor sentiment. Crude oil jumped as much as 5.0 percent on comments from the Saudi oil minister about potential action to stabilize prices and the International Energy Agency's forecast that crude oil markets would rebalance in the next few months. The S&P energy index rallied 1.3 percent, making it the top gainer among the 10 major sectors, led b