Closing Bell Report

Retreating oil prices along with an unexpected gain in April home sales lifted the markets to a higher close with the Dow gaining 69 points to 12,548.  Nasdaq soared 37 points to 2481.

On the upside

Shares of China Finance Online (Nasdaq: JRJC) rose ahead of its earnings release later this week.

X-Rite (Nasdaq: XRIT) increased its liquidity position from $18 million to $25 million.

American Airlines (NYSE: AMR) rejected a contract proposal submitted by the pilot union saying that the cost would be too high.

On the downside

An oil leak shutdown production of two fields over the weekend but StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO) has now restarted production.

Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) ended its partnership with Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and has launched its own online retailing site.

UBS analyst Eric Wasserstrom cut his price target for IndyMac (NYSE: IMB) saying that the company will not return to profitability for some time and must raise more capital.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks soared 10 points to 734.