Wall Street nears record high after upbeat quarterly reports

Wall Street was just 1 percent short of a record-high close on Wednesday as a rebound in oil prices added to optimism sparked by a raft of earnings reports that beat low expectations. Driven 15 percent higher since mid-February by a recovery in weak prices and helped by a softer dollar, the S&P 500 was less than 25 points below last May's all-time peak. Investors were honing in on a flow of first-quarter results, including an upbeat report from VMWare and a disappointing scorecard from Coca-