US stocks end higher as hurricane downgraded

Wall Street rallied to finish mostly higher today, capping off the week with two days of gains as Hurricane Rita lost steam and raised hopes that its impact on key Gulf Coast refineries wouldn’t be as bad as initially feared.

With Rita headed for the Texas coastline – the heart of US oil production - investors had braced for a repeat of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina last month. By this afternoon, however, Rita weakened two notches to a Category 3 hurricane, sending oil prices down more than 2 dollars and easing the mood on Wall Street.