New York -  Wall Street closed at record highs on Thursday as surging oil prices and strong earnings from department stores Macy’s and Kohl’s buoyed investor sentiment.

The Dow Jones industrial average

< .DJI> rose 117.86 points, or 0.64 percent, to 18,613.52 the S&P 500 < .SPX> gained 10.3 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,185.79 and the Nasdaq Composite < .IXIC>

added 23.81 points, or 0.46 percent, to 5,228.40.