Stocks rise in short session
Markets have been relatively buoyant since Friday, June 29, when the leaders of the 17 countries that use the euro agreed on a series of measures that investors concluded will reduce the risk that Italy and Spain need a sovereign bailout anytime soon. (June 29, 2012) Credit: AP
Stocks climbed Tuesday in an abbreviated pre-holiday trading session after an encouraging report about manufacturing. Energy stocks rose the most because of increased tension over oil-rich Iran.
Major stock indexes wavered in early trading, then moved decisively higher after the government reported that factory orders rose in May. Caterpillar, Alcoa, Boeing and other stocks that depend on manufacturing rose.
The report differed in outlook from a trade group report on Monday that U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time since July 2009, the first month after the Great Recession ended.
The price of oil climbed more than 4 percent after Iran threatened to block a critical Persian Gulf shipping route. On Sunday, Europe enacted stricter rules against buying oil from Iran, trying to force it to be more open about its nuclear program.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished 72.43 points higher at 12,943.82. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.62 percent to 1,374.02. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.84 percent to 2,976.08. Trading volume was light. The market closed three hours early, at 1 p.m., and many traders had already taken off for the Fourth of July holiday. -- AP
