Business Highlights

… lower Thursday, wiping out much of the market’s gains from a day earlier. Phone companies, real estate, utilities and health care stocks eked out gains. Energy, technology and other stocks that posted big gains in the weeks after the November …

TIMELINE: The tumultuous 155-year history of oil prices

Most recently, after two years of depressed prices, OPEC agreed to curtail output by 1.2 million barrels per day at its meeting in Vienna in late November in an attempt to end the global supply glut. Several non-OPEC producers including Russia tagged along in December, agreeing to reduce output by about 560,000 bpd .