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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks have ended the day with slight gains in lighter-than-average trading ahead of the Memorial Day holiday. The Standard & Poor's closed up five points, the Dow Jones industrial average edged up a third of a point and the Nasdaq composite rose 19. Stocks are trading at record levels, but the market's gains this week have been modest.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil rose sharply for the second day in a row on a decline in the value of the dollar. Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.74 to close at $60.72 a barrel in New York. The price of oil has now climbed more than 40 percent from its lows in March.
GOLETA, Calif. (AP) — Officials say more than 7,700 gallons of oil has been raked, skimmed and vacuumed from a spill across 9 miles of California coast. But that's just a fraction of the crude that escaped from a ruptured pipeline on Tuesday. The operator, Plains All American Pipeline, estimates that up to 105,000 gallons may have leaked, and up to 21,000 gallons reached the sea just northwest of Santa Barbara. The environmental impact is still being assessed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is refunding a total of $10 million to thousands of tax preparers who paid to take a competency test. A federal court struck down IRS regulations in 2013 that sought to require some tax preparers to get training and take a test. An appellate court upheld the ruling last year, saying the IRS lacked the legal authority to mandate the testing. The IRS said about 89,000 tax preparers paid $116 apiece to take the test. It's now issuing refunds to those preparers.
NEW YORK (AP) — More people watched David Letterman's farewell show than anything else in prime time last night. The Nielsen company says 13.76 million viewers saw Letterman end his 33-year career as a late-night TV host. That was his biggest audience in more than 21 years. The last time Letterman had so many viewers was in February 1994, when his show aired after CBS' telecast of the Winter Olympics.
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