Oil and Gold Outshine Market's Gains

Stock markets are moving slightly higher today after a number of economic indicators came in right around expectations. New jobless claims were at 371,000, and job openings rose slightly to 3.68 million, above the 3.67 million reported a month earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average proceeded to rise 0.55%, while the more diverse S&P 500 is up 0.68%.

One of the more interesting moves of the day was crude oil's spike to $94.70 per barrel, after which it settled in at a 0.9% rise to about $94 per barrel. China reported a 14.1% increase in exports in December, which is a strong economic indicator for one of the few economies in the world that are still growing. Oil has reversed a slide that had the commodity trading below $90 per barrel since mid-October, and it doesn't appear to be losing steam yet.

ExxonMobil and Chevron have climbed 1.3% and 0.9%, respectively, on the news and continue to slowly gain ground as oil rises.

It would be easy to assume that Alcoa would follow the rise of oil, as the aluminum maker has often jumped when positive economic news comes out of China. But in the same report, data shows that copper imports fell and that we may not be seeing a sustainable increase in demand for raw materials to end 2012. Right now Alcoa has lost 1.1% of its value today.

Gold has gained 1.24% today after the dollar lost value. The SPDR Gold Shares has also gained 1.1%

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The article Oil and Gold Outshine Market's Gains originally appeared on Fool.com.

Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, check out his personal stock holdings or follow his CAPS picks at TMFFlushDraw. The Motley Fool recommends Chevron. The Motley Fool owns shares of ExxonMobil. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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