U.S. stocks rose on data showing improvement in global manufacturing and the American labor market amid a three-hour trading halt on the Nasdaq Stock Market after a computer error.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.9% to 1,656.96 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 66.19 points, or 0.4%, to 14,963.74. The benchmark index experienced a six-day losing streak, its longest slump in 13 months. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.1% to 3,638.71 after trading resumed following a computer error.
“The employment numbers were encouraging and showed a continuation of slow growth in employment,” Paul Mangus, head of equity strategy and research for Wells Fargo Private Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina, said in a telephone interview. His firm manages $170 billion. “There are signs of stabilization in China and improvement in Europe, which could help U.S. multinationals in the long run.”
Computer breakdowns froze American equity trading again as software that feeds data between exchanges prompted Nasdaq to halt trading in stocks and options today starting around 12:20 p.m. in New York. Trading resumed about three hours later. This is the second malfunctioning this week after Goldman Sachs computer error shocked option markets and costed the financial institution around $100 million.
The number of claims in the month ended Aug. 17 declined to 330,500 a week on average, the least since November 2007, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. Compared with a week earlier, claims rose by 13,000 to 336,000, in line with the median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
In corporate news, Yahoo, the biggest U.S. Web portal, added 3.1% to $27.90. More than 196 million users spent time on Yahoo’s websites in July, ComScore Inc. said. That’s 4.3 million more than Google Inc. and the first time Yahoo’s Web traffic surpassed that of the world’s most popular search engine since May 2011.
GameStop Corp. advanced 9% to $51.91 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. The largest specialty retailer of video games gained the most in a year after raising its full-year profit forecast ahead of the release of new consoles from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp.
Hewlett-Packard sank 12% to $22.22, the steepest slide in the Dow. The computer maker issued a forecast for fiscal fourth-quarter profit that missed some analysts’ estimates, and Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman adjusted a projection for growth in fiscal 2014 as weak demand for personal computers and lower business spending prevents her turnaround efforts.
Abercrombie & Fitch declined 18% to $38.53, the biggest drop since November 2011. The retailer reported second-quarter earnings of 16 cents a share, compared with the average analyst estimate of 29 cents and its own forecast of at least 28 cents.
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