U.S. stocks closed with moderate gains Wednesday, as investors grew concerned over rising interest rates in the Treasury market. Investors were also dealing with the agreement struck Monday between President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers to extend tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 per year. However, at a news conference Tuesday, Obama said he would push to have the tax cuts eliminated for high earners after the two-year extension was over. Meanwhile, investors struggled with an ongoing sell-off in the Treasury market, which has pushed the benchmark 10-year yield near a 6-month high. In U.S. company news, shares of AIG were halted after the insurance giant said it had signed an agreement with the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, and other creditors to repay about $20 billion it received during the financial crisis. In a statement, AIG said the agreement with the government "marks an important step forward in our progress toward completely repaying taxpayers." The U.S. dollar gained against the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for January delivery fell 41 cents to $88.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell $25.80 to $1,383.20 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.32, or 0.1 percent, to 11,372.48. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.53, or 0.4 percent, to 1,228.28. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 10.67, or 0.4 percent, to 2,609.16.
