US stocks end losing streak

NEW YORK: US stocks closed higher on Wednesday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended an eight-day losing streak and markets regained some ground lost in Tuesday's brutal sell-off.

The Dow average of 30 blue-chip stocks rose 29.82 points (0.25 percent) to close at 11,896.44.

The broader S&P 500 climbed 6.29 points (0.50 percent) to 1,260.34, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 23.83 points (0.89 percent) to 2,693.07.

All three indices had plunged more than two percent on Tuesday amid worries about economic weakness in the United States and Europe.

Shares of Mastercard surged 13.4 percent on Wednesday after the credit-card giant reported second-quarter earnings that comfortably beat Wall Street forecasts.

Technology stocks also helped lift the market, with chipmaker Intel gaining 1.4 percent and Internet search giant Google rising 1.5 percent.

Energy stocks fell as the price of oil dropped to one-month lows on the back of weak economic data. ExxonMobil lost 0.2 percent and Chevron tumbled 0.7 percent.

Wednesday's gains came despite a pair of reports which suggested that the US economy was stalling.

Payrolls firm ADP reported that a net 114,000 jobs were created by private, non-farm businesses in the United States in July, fewer than in June, but better than analysts had expected.

And the Institute for Supply Management said its index of non-manufacturing activity fell to 52.7 last month, indicating that the giant US service sector grew at a snail's pace in July. A level of 50 indicates no growth.

"Economic numbers have been poor for most of the last week and a half and today was no difference," said Michael James, senior equity trader with Wedbush Morgan Securities.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 2.60 percent from 2.62 percent late Monday, while that on the 30-year bond fell to 3.87 percent from 3.92 percent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011