TORONTO -- The Toronto stock market closed slightly higher Tuesday, led by gains in the energy sector as the price of oil settled at its highest level in a week.

The S&P/TSX composite rose 5.69 points to 15,389.28, following a small decline of 4.84 points on Monday. The Canadian dollar rose 0.64 of a U.S. cent. to 80.06 cents.

The May crude contract closed up $1.38 at US$53.29 a barrel on reports that Iran's oil minister has called on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut production by at least five per cent.

The energy sector was the biggest gainer on the TSX, up almost two per cent.

In New York, markets were mostly higher amid mixed earnings reports, including a surprise beat by America's largest bank by assets, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), which said earnings rose 11 per cent in the first quarter. Its shares rose 97 cents or 1.56 per cent to US$63.04.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) stock lost ground after reporting that first-quarter earnings fell slightly from a year ago. Wells Fargo shares were down 40 cents or 0.73 per cent at US$54.19.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 59.66 points at 18,036.70 and the S&P 500 advanced 3.41 points to 2,095.84.

Sadiq Adatia, chief investment officer at Sun Life Global Investments, says investors are "happy" but "not overwhelmed" with earnings released by U.S. companies so far.

"Earnings are not bad by any means, I just think the expectations have gotten to be quite big now," Adatia said.

As anticipated, strength in the U.S. dollar is beginning to hurt profits at U.S. multinational companies, he noted, a trend that is likely to continue.

"As the U.S. dollar continues to strengthen, you will see slowing growth of a lot of the multinational companies," Adatia said.

The Nasdaq gave back 10.96 points to close at 4,977.29 as technology stocks slumped.

Adatia says investors are concerned that technology companies, whose share prices have rallied over the past few years, could be running out of room for growth.

"When you look at earnings of these companies, though they're good, the question that remains is whether or not you're going to see a lot more growth coming out of those companies going forward," Adatia said.

"And with that, the caution is whether or not they'll reinvest back into technology within their companies. I think that's putting a little bit of a pause on the technology sector."

U.S. retail sales were higher than expected in March, rising by the largest amount in a year after three consecutive monthly declines.

Adatia says it's a sign that weakness in the previous months was likely caused by bad weather.

Meanwhile, the June gold contract fell $6.70 to US$1,192.60 an ounce and May copper fell two cents to US$2.70 a pound.