U.S. stocks closed higher Wednesday. The dollar lost ground against a basket of currencies. Light sweet crude oil for December delivery rose 44 cents to $45.44 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gold futures traded as high as $1,338.30 per ounce, before erasing gains to settle at $1,273.50 The Dow Jones industrial average rose 204, or 1.13 percent, to 18,543. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 20, or 0.95 percent, to 2,159. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index climbed 37, or 0.73 percent, to 5,232