Stocks are rallying

Stocks are rallying in morning trading after a painful sell-off on Wednesday.

The Dow gained as many as 191 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up about 1%.

The plunge on Wednesday took the major stock indexes down by more than 3%, as crude oil collapsed 7%. But in the final hour of trading, stocks trimmed much of their losses, although it was still a close in the red.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures were higher, and climbed about 2% and back above $29 per barrel.

Data on US oil inventories from the Energy Information Administration showed a build by 3.98 million barrels last week, more than expected.

After the closing bell, Schlumberger will be the first major oil company to report fourth-quarter earnings.

In economic data out earlier, initial jobless claims unexpectedly jumped by 10,000 to 293,000, while the Philly Fed's manufacturing index dropped to a three-year low of -3.5.

This post is being updated.