(MENAFN– ecpulse)
The U.S stock local market closed the day in green with the S&P 500 on track for another all-time high and the Dow Jones Industrial Average within throwing distance of 17,000 again.
Stocks gained support from Chinese manufacturing expansion and as a U.S. manufacturing index showed the highest level of new orders since December.
Manufacturing activity expanded at a slower rate in June but was still near the highest since the end of last year. New orders rose to the highest level since the end of 2013, according to a report by the Institute of Supply Management (ISM).
Markit’s final reading of U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for June came in at 57.3, slightly down from the 57.5 flash reading.
Spending for U.S. construction projects rose 0.1% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $956.1 billion, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Economists polled by Bloomberg had expected a 0.5% increase. However, the report showed a significant revision to April’s gain to 0.8% from 0.2%.
Ahead of the U.S. reports, two separate manufacturing PMIs from China showed improvement in June, but manufacturing activity in the euro zone slowed.
-The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.77% or 129.47 points to 16956.07
-The S&P 500 index gained 0.67% or 13.09 points to 1973.32
-The NASDAQ Composite Index gained 1.14% or 50.47 points to 4458.65 . As of 16:15 p.m. ET
Investors will also pay attention to June car sales figures to assess the health of U.S. consumers.
As for individual stocks, General Motors Co. shares were up 1.2% as the car maker reported its U.S. car and light truck sales rose 1% in June to 267,461 vehicles.
Ford Motor Co. shares dropped 0.4% after the company said U.S. vehicle sales fell 6% to 222,064 in June.
Shares of Twitter were up nearly 5% after the company announced a new Chief Financial Officer, a day after announcing that it has acquired mobile ad startup TapCommerce.
Shares of Netflix Inc. rose 3.6% after Goldman Sachs equity analysts upgraded the stock to a buy, from neutral.
Shares of Urban Outfitters Inc. fell 2.42% after analysts at Wedbush downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform, citing risks of a slowdown in the retailer’s Anthropologie unit.
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