US stocks struggle higher after weak data
After shooting more than 120 points higher in opening trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 57.75 points (0.46 percent) at 12,499.33 at 1500 GMT.
The S&P 500-stock index, a broader measure of the markets, advanced 6.21 points (0.47 percent) to 1,337.31, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 13.25 points (0.47 percent) to 2,810.11.
Stocks had gotten off to a sharply positive start of the holiday-shortened week amid rising hopes for a solution to Greece's debt crisis and signs of recovery in post-quake Japan that had lifted overseas markets.
US financial markets were closed Monday for Memorial Day.
"The catalysts for the positive disposition include news that industrial production picked up in Japan in April and is expected to accelerate further, and word that eurozone officials are working out details of a new loan package for Greece," said Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com.
But the feel-good feeling quickly dissipated after US economic data all came in below market expectations.
The Conference Board said its computer confidence index slid to 60.8 in May from 66.0 in April on growing worries about unemployment and rising food and fuel prices.
Manufacturing activity in the Chicago area slowed for the third straight month in May, the Institute for Supply Management said, dragging its index to the weakest level in a year and a half.
There was more bad news on the long-depressed US housing market. The S&P/Case-Shiller index showed home pries fell for the ninth straight month in March, by 3.6 percent from a year earlier.
On the merger and acquisition front, chemicals firm Ashland said it was buying privately owned International Specialty Products for about $3.2 billion in cash. Ashland leaped 9.5 percent to $66.87.
Shares in Wal-Mart rose 0.5 percent to $54.99. South Africa's anti-trust tribunal gave the world's largest retailer the green light for its first foothold in Africa, approving its bid to buy a controlling stake in Massmart, which operates in 14 African countries.
Apple bounced 1.7 percent higher, to $343.08, after the firm said chief executive Steve Jobs will return from sick leave Monday to unveil a new operating system.
Wall Street stocks closed with modest gains Friday but the week ended lower for the fourth week running. The Dow rose 0.31 percent.
The bond market was steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond was at 3.06 percent, unchanged from late Friday, while that on the 30-year bond fell to 4.22 percent from 4.24 percent. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011