NEW YORK, April 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. oil price rose for a third day Wednesday as Standard & Poor's 500 hit a new all-time high.

Oil price fell after opening as the Energy Information Agency ( EIA) reported that oil inventories rose 300,000 barrels last week to 388.9 million barrels, when a rise in domestic output offset a dip in imports and rise in refinery inputs. Gasoline inventories went up 1.7 million barrels in the week.

Oil prices rebounded and offset early loss later largely helped by the big rally in U.S. equity market, an indicator of a healthy economy and improving market sentiment.

The broad-based S&P 500 index hit a new all-time high Wednesday, barely surpassing its previous intraday record of 1,576.09 set on Oct. 11, 2007.

The U.S. market was partly boosted by the massive asset purchases by the Federal Reserve. The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's March meeting released prematurely Wednesday morning indicated stimulus program would remain.

On the economic front, China's small trade deficit and a lower- than-expected consumer price index (CPI) in March added momentum to the rally of the market. China saw a trade deficit of 880 million U.S. dollars in March, in contrast to the 15.25-billion- dollar surplus in February, with exports up 10 percent year-on- year and imports up 14.1 percent.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery advanced 44 cents, or 0.46 percent, to settle at 94.64 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Weighed down by weak demand concerns, Brent crude for May delivery dropped 44 cents, or 0.41 percent, to close at 105.79 dollars a barrel.