U.S. stocks closed mildly higher Wednesday after their best start to a month in just over three years. The dollar traded mildly lower against major currencies. Light sweet crude oil for April delivery added 26 cents to $34.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gold futures gained $11 to $1,241.80 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 10, or 0.06 percent, to 16,875. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index increased 4, or 0.21 percent, to 1,982. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index declined 2, or 0.04 percent, to 4,691.