Trader's Highlight

DJI-NEW YORK, May 6 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday after a private-sector reading on the labor market signaled unemployment may be receding and leaked bank stress test results suggested most banks are healthier than previously thought.

The number of U.S. private sector job losses in April touched the lowest level since November, according to a report by ADP Employer Services, the latest data suggesting the worst of the recession may have passed.

The government is due to release stress test results on Thursday. Several reports on the capital needs for 10 of the 19 banks under the government's microscope have revealed how well the industry will cope with perhaps the most severe recession
since World War Two.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 101.63 points, or 1.21 percent, to 8,512.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> climbed 15.73 points, or 1.74 percent, to 919.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> added 4.98 points, or 0.28
percent, to 1,759.10.

NYMEX-NEW YORK, May 6 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures settled at their highest levels in five months on Wednesday as a drawdown in gasoline supplies and a smaller-than-expected rise in crude stocks combined to lift prices.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, June crude settled up $2.50, or 4.64 percent, at $56.34 a barrel, the highest level since prices closed at $57.04 on Nov. 14, 2008. The contract traded from $53.57 to $56.47, the highest since $58.98 was struck on Nov. 17, 2008, and eclipsing the previous 2009 peak of $54.83 set Tuesday.

CBOT-SOYBEANS - May up 19 cents at $11.35 a bushel; July up 17 cents at $11.18.

Rallied to fresh seven-month high of $11.35 amid reports of low soybean yields in the Argentine harvest, tight stocks of soy and continued active buying of soy by China.

The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange on Wednesday left unchanged from the previous week its forecast for the country's soybean crop at 34 million tonnes.

CBOT-SOYOIL - May up 0.96 cent at 38.65 cents per lb., July up 0.99 at 38.98 cents. Soaring soybeans and crude oil and strong Asian vegoil markets pushing soyoil higher.

FCPO-JAKARTA, May 6 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm futures rose 2.1 percent on Wednesday, recouping most of the losses from a day earlier on concerns over tight supplies, traders said.

The benchmark July contract rose 55 ringgit to 2,680 ringgit per tonne ($758.99). Overall volume was nearly triple the usual amount, at 28,609 lots of 25 tonnes each.

REGIONAL EQUITIES-BANGKOK, May 6 (Reuters) - Singapore stocks jumped 5 percent
on Wednesday as better-than-expected quarterly results pushed shares in big banks to a seven-month high, while news on government stimulus spending boosted Thai building stocks.

Singapore <.FTSTI> ended up 5.1 percent at its highest close since Oct. 14, after a 14 percent rally over the past four sessions as equity fund managers warmed to Southeast Asia's biggest stock market amid hopes for an economic recovery.

Elsewhere, Malaysia <.KLSE> climbed 1.5 percent, Indonesia <.JKSE> was up 1.5 percent and Philippine shares <.VNI> rose for a fourth day, up 0.4 percent.

Gainers in the region included Malaysia's Maybank , which rose 7.4 percent, Indonesia's Perusahaan Gas Negara , which gained 6.7 percent, and Bank of the Philippine Islands , which was up 2.4 percent.