U.S. stocks closed broadly higher on Wednesday as optimism about strong economic recovery outweighed concerns about inflation and possibility of interest rate hikes happening next year.<\/p>\n
Investors reacted to data on private sector employment, pending home sales and the reading on Chicago Business Barometer, and looked ahead to crucial non-farm payrolls data, due on Friday.<\/p>\n
The surge in infections due to the delta variant of the coronavirus<\/span>, and curbs on travel in several countries raised some uncertainty about the pace of global economic rebound and rendered the mood cautious.<\/p>\n Among the major averages, the Dow came back fairly strongly after suffering a setback in the previous session, the S&P 500 hit another record high, and the Nasdaq edged down marginally. <\/p>\n The Dow ended up by 210.22 points or 0.61 percent at 34,502.51. The S&P 500 settled at 4,297.50, gaining 5.70 points or 0.12 percent, and the Nasdaq closed lower by 24.38 points or 0.17 percent at 14,503.95.<\/p>\n The Dow ended the month almost unchanged from previous month’s level, after posting four monthly gains. The Nasdaq added more than 6% this month, while the S&P 500 gained more than 2%.<\/p>\n Data from Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) showed private business<\/span> in the U.S. hired 692,000 workers in the month of June, higher than an expected addition of 600,000. However, the hiring in June was much below a downwardly revised 886,000 job additions in May.<\/p>\n According to a report released by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), the MNI Chicago Business Barometer came in with a reading of 66.1 for June, down from a score of 75.2 in the previous month.<\/p>\n Data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed pending home sales in the U.S. increased by 13.1% year-on-year in May, after soaring by a record 51.7% in April.<\/p>\n Walmart, General Electric and Honeywell International gained 2 to 3 percent. Goldman Sachs climbed nearly 2 percent. Travelers Companies, Boeing, 3M and Caterpillar also closed notably higher.<\/p>\n Intel, Visa, Nike, Microsoft and IBM closed weak.<\/p>\n