Dow climbs nearly 200 points as investors brush off worries about rising oil prices

Oil prices surged and the Israeli currency fell at the start of the week as investors reacted to war between Hamas and Israel.

US stocks, which soared Friday on a surprisingly strong American job market report, staged a comeback Monday afternoon after falling earlier in the trading session.

The Dow rose 197 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 added 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4%.

Stocks initially fell Monday morning as global investors feared the conflict in Israel could spill over to the wider region, and that prolonged tensions in the Middle East could hurt the fragile global economic recovery. But the midday reversal suggests that Wall Street is taking a wait-and-see approach for now to the risks the conflict in the Middle East could pose to financial markets.

"Right now there are a lot of 'maybes' and 'ifs' - and a real lack of clarity," said David Donabedian, chief investment officer at CIBC Private Wealth US, adding that "markets will continue to look at everything it usually looks at," including climbing bond yields and the Federal Reserve's future monetary policy decisions.

Although Israel is not a major oil producer, escalating tensions in the oil-rich Middle East spooked investors who had been selling off oil in recent weeks.

Inflation, fear of a global economic downturn and a correction to prices that were surging in recent months had sent US oil down from around $95 a barrel in late September to just above $80 last week.