Blue-Chip stocks rose yesterday as Wall Street looked past a profit-warning from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing and focused on hints of a recovery in the battered US manufacturing sector.
But technology shares slipped as investors turned their attention to manufacturing bellwethers such as Caterpillar, up $1.91 at $51.96, after the National Association of Purchasing Management's manufacturing sector index (NAPM) was up more than expected last month.
The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average ended up 91.25 points, or 0.87 per cent, at 10,593.65 and the broad Standard & Poors 500 index was up 12.29 at 1,236.71. The tech-laced Nasdaq Composite Index fell 11.82 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 2,148.72, weighed by a big drop in software giant Microsoft, off $2.40 to $70.60.
The nation's manufacturers could show further signs of a slow recovery in the second half of the year after new orders picked up in June, the NAPM report said, boosting hopes the worst may yet be over for the recession-plagued sector. The NAPM's manufacturing sector index rose to 44.7 in June - beating expectations for a 42.8 reading - from 42.1 in May.
Diversified manufacturer 3M, a Dow component, staged a dramatic recovery as it erased its early loss to finish with a gain of $3.16 at $117.26.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)