Stocks closed lower yesterday after a morning rally fizzled when oil prices resumed their upward trend, causing renewed jitters on Wall Street. Analysts said the early rebound was largely due to bargain hunting following last week's sell-off and that the markets remained concerned about the impact of surging oil prices on the US economy.

In New York, the price of light sweet crude oil jumped $1.51 dollars to $35.14 dollars a barrel as analysts expressed doubts over the ability of OPEC promises to hike output would be enough to cool an overheating market.

Also hurting share prices was the further decline in the euro, which could hurt US corporate profits because of exchange rate fluctuations.