U.S. stocks traded higher Wednesday as Federal Reserve may end its rate-raising campaign started June 2004, shrugging off the surging oil prices above 72 dollars.

In the midday exchanges, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13.60 at 11,282. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 0.39 to 1,308.04 while the Nasdaq composite index added 5 to 2,361.

U.S. core consumer prices increased at the largest pace in a year, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

The core consumer price index -- the measure of retail-level inflation that excludes food and energy prices -- increased 0.3 percent last month, matching a 0.3 percent gain in March 2005. Read the full government report. Overall, consumer price inflation also picked up in March, rising 0.4 percent.

Policymakers at U.S. Federal Reserve believed last month that the end of its rate-raising campaign started June 2004 was probably close at hand, according to minutes of the central bank's meeting on March 27-28.

"Most members thought that the end of the tightening process was likely to be near," said the minutes released on Tuesday.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, hovered above 71 dollars Wednesday, its record high since 1983.

Source: Xinhua