A drop in oil prices below $60 a barrel sent stocks soaring yesterday, carrying the Dow Jones industrial average 136 points higher and past 11,000 for the first time in a month. A surge in retail sales added to the market's good mood.

"Oil below $60 a barrel grabbed folks' attention," said Bob Sitko, who handles more than $500 million as a lead portfolio manager with USAA Private Investment Management.

Other analysts attributed some of the rise to sheer momentum, because Wall Street initially had a muted reaction to oil's decline and the pickup in retail sales.

The market seemed to shed completely its torpor of Monday, when investors sent shares lower as they worried about new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's remarks before Congress today, his first appearance on Capitol Hill as Fed chairman.

Broader stock indicators also closed sharply higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 12.67, or 1 percent, to 1,275.53, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 22.36, or 1 percent, to 2,262.17.

Crude-oil futures fell amid expectations that a U.S. supply report due today will show higher crude inventories. A barrel of light crude settled at $59.57 a barrel, down $1.67, in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Energy prices have been declining steeply. Gasoline futures have fallen roughly 22 percent in the last two weeks, while crude is down roughly 13 percent, and natural-gas prices are 50 percent lower than their mid-December peak, Sitko said.

The day's other heartening economic news came from the Commerce Department, which said retail sales outside of autos rose by the largest amount in more than six years.

In company news, Deere & Co., one of the world's largest manufacturers of farm and lawn-care equipment, rose 87 cents, to $74.67, after it posted a 6 percent rise in first-quarter profit and predicted its first-quarter sales trend will continue through 2006, with sales expected to grow by a range of 3 percent to 5 percent for the year.

3M Co., a diversified manufacturer, rose 79 cents, to $73.70, after it boosted its quarterly dividend 9.5 percent and announced a $2 billion share buyback program.

Coca-Cola Co. rose 60 cents, to $41.34, after it said billionaire investor Warren Buffett would not run for reelection to Coke's board of directors.

Buffett, who has been on the board of Coke, the world's biggest soft-drink company, since 1989, said he made his decision because of increased demands on his time resulting from acquisitions by his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

But some investors had been pushing Buffett to leave the board, saying that Coke's business with companies owned by Berkshire created a conflict of interest. Berkshire's thinly traded A shares rose $100 to $88,100.

Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. fell $1.51, to $29.71, after the company, the nation's largest insurance brokerage, reported a profit of $35 million in the fourth quarter. Its earnings were an improvement from the year-earlier loss, but fell below Wall Street expectations.

Japanese stocks bounced back after a two-day decline, with technology, auto, machinery and banking stocks leading the market higher. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.93 percent.

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