US stocks chalk up solid gains

NEW YORK: US stocks racked up solid gains in a holiday-shortened
trading session Tuesday, boosted by a strong factory orders report for
May and robust June sales from the leading US automakers.

Energy
shares led the way on higher oil prices as trade closed at mid-session
to allow for travel ahead of the July 4th Independence Day holiday.

At the finish the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 72.43 points (0.56 percent) to 12,943.82.

The
S&P 500-stock index added 8.51 (0.62 percent) to 1,374.02, while
the tech-rich Nasdaq put on 24.84 points (0.84 percent) to 2,976.08.


"The early bid was helped by a better-than-expected factory orders
report, which came in at plus 0.7 percent" compared to the forecast
increase of 0.4 percent, said Briefing.com. "Equities moved to session
highs on the data."

The
market also gained on strong June sales by the Big Three US automakers,
offsetting some of the worries about weak consumer spending.

GM said sales were up 16 percent from a year earlier, Ford seven percent, and Chrysler 20 percent.

"High
auto sales volumes in June can be attributed to pent-up demand, some
targeted incentive programs, low interest rates and falling gas
prices," said Michelle Krebs of industry specialists Edmunds.com.

GM shares leaped by 5.6 percent while Ford shares rose a more modest 2.2 percent; Chrysler is not publicly traded.

Alcoa
was up 3.2 percent and Caterpillar 3.3 percent to lead the Dow
blue-chip gainers; big-box retailer Home Depot's shares fell 2.6
percent to lead the losers.

Boeing was up 1.5 percent after
raising its 20-year forecast for global demand for airliners by US$500
billion, to US$4.5 trillion.

Investors were unperturbed by rival
Airbus's announcement Monday that it planned to start assembling
aircraft in the United States to better challenge Boeing on its home
market.

Miner Freeport McMoRan shares surged 3.9 percent after
the company's chief executive said that its Indonesia copper mining
operations were almost back to normal after lengthy disruptions due to
conflicts with its work force.

On the Nasdaq, Apple gained 1.2 percent, Google 1.3 percent and Facebook 1.4 percent.

Microsoft
reversed an early fall to end up 0.7 percent higher, after it announced
Monday it would take a US$6.2 billion writedown related to its 2007
acquisition of digital advertising firm aQuantive. -- AFP