Stocks ended the day slightly higher Monday as oil prices hovered near $66 a barrel in spite of lower-than-expected damage estimates from Hurricane Rita.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 24.04, or 0.2 percent, to 10,443.63, after jumping nearly 90 points in morning trading. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.34, or 0.03 percent, to 1,215.63. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 4.62, or 0.2 percent, to 2,121.46.

Crude futures jumped $1.63 to settle at $65.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are 40 percent higher than year-ago levels, but are below a record of $70.85 a barrel reached after Katrina closed down 90 percent of the region’s production capacity. Rita weakened on Friday, calming investor anxiety that the latest hurricane would cause the amount of damage that Katrina did.

Among local movers, shares of Ameron International Corp. rose 7.3 percent o $43.07 after the Pasadena-based engineered products manufacturer swung to a third-quarter profit, reversing a year-ago loss that included hefty costs for terminating two executive benefit plans. The company reported net income of $13.5 million ($1.58 per diluted share), compared with a loss of $8.8 million ($1.05) a year earlier.

ValueClick Inc. gained 6 percent to $17.06 after the Westlake Village-based firm was rated “overweight” in new coverage by analyst Imran Khan at JPMorgan. JPMorgan said it sees better-than-expected results from PriceRunner AB, which ValueClick acquired last August and added to its media segment.

Reinhold Industries Inc. edged up 3 percent to $23.69 after the Santa Fe Springs-based composite components manufacturer said it agreed to sell its UK-based unit, NP Aerospace Ltd., to Carlyle Group for about $53.4 million. Reinhold plans to use up to $25 million of the sale proceeds to repay substantially all of its outstanding senior debt.

On the down side, shares of Intermix Media Inc. lost 1.9 percent to $12.07 after the L.A.-based Web site operator said its board unanimously rejected a proposal by ousted former Chief Executive Brad Greenspan to buy a significant interest in the company and reaffirmed its recommendation that stockholders vote in favor of the pending $580 million acquisition by News Corp.