US stocks close higher

Stocks climbed in a seesaw session on Wall Street today, rising after the president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve signalled the central bank could change its interest rate policy in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Stocks moved higher after Philadelphia Fed President Anthony Santomero called increasing oil prices a “tax” and told CNBC it was too early to say whether the Fed would change its interest rate policy in light of the hurricane’s wreckage.