US stocks advance amid Syria vote, economic data

US stocks rose, extending a one-week high, before a Senate committee vote on action against Syria as investors awaited economic data for clues on the Federal Reserve’s next move.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3% to 1,644.63 at 10:00 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 48.30 points, or 0.3%, to 14,851.78. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 23% above the 30-day average at this time of day.

“It’s very important for markets what the U.S. is going to do with the Syria situation,” said to Bloomberg, Kully Samra, who manages U.K. clients for Charles Schwab Corp., which has $2.1 trillion of assets globally. “The Beige Book is the big one among economic reports that investors are waiting for. It’s something the Fed looks at closely and is among the last big reports before the September policy meeting.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote today on a resolution that supports the use of force by the US military in Syria with a 90-day limit and explicitly doesnt authorize use of ground troops in combat. The Senate Democratic leadership supports the resolution, according to a source who asked not to be identified.

The Fed, which has said it may pare stimulus if the U.S. economy improves in line with its forecasts, will hold its next policy meeting on Sept. 17-18. The S&P 500 has lost 4.1% from a record on Aug. 2 amid speculation the Fed will decide at that meeting to slow its bond buying. The stimulus helped push the benchmark gauge up more than 150% from its March 2009 low.

In corporate news, “Apple is on the verge of an extended product cycle that we believe will include a refresh of existing products, increased penetration within existing device categories and entirely new market opportunities,” Cantor analyst Brian White wrote in a note.

J.C. Penney & Co. added 5.7% to $13.44 after Glenview Capital Management LLC raised its stake in the department-store chain. Glenview said in a filing yesterday it owns 20.1 million shares of J.C. Penney. It had earlier owned 8.4 million shares, according to a June 30 filing.

LinkedIn lost 1.7% to $241.88. The owner of the world’s biggest professional-networking website said in a filing it plans to sell 4.17 million shares of its Class A stock. LinkedIn estimated it will raise $1 billion from the sale, based on a closing price of $240.04 on August 30.

Microsoft slid 1.7% to $31.35. Morgan Stanley downgraded the world’s biggest software maker to “equal weight”, a rating comparable to “neutral”, from “overweight”, which is similar to “buy”. The company’s 5.44 billion euro ($7.2-billion) deal with Nokia brings execution risks and increased expenditure.