NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose early Wednesday as the market seeks to shrug off a lackluster stretch of trading in the penultimate session of the first quarter.

With the S&P 500 up almost 10 percent for the year, analysts have characterized a three-day slide in the index as a consolidation period.

However, market watchers also see a reason for investment managers to buy stocks as part of “window dressing” to be able to show first-quarter gains.

Wall Street slips as holiday-thinned week begins

Thursday will be the final trading day of the quarter due to the Good Friday holiday.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.8 percent at 39,599.73.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent to 5,234.76, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 percent to 16,381.67.

Among individual companies, Dow component Merck jumped 4.4 percent after announcing that US regulators with the Food and Drug Administration approved the company’s Winrevair medication to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension.