Dawn Chorus: Wall Street inches higher despite weak manufacturing data

Wall Street inched higher on Wednesday on the back of healthcare and consumer staples as investors shrugged off disappointing manufacturing data from the New York region.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 46 points, or 0.44%, to 10,573. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose four points, or 0.35%, to 1,125. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 11 points, or 0.5%, to 2,301.

Equities gained even as the New York Federal Reserve’s manufacturing index showed slowing growth in the region, falling to 4.1 from 7.1 in August. Economists had forecast an increase to 8.

Investors ignored another release that showed US industrial output in August grew at a slower-than-expected pace of 0.2% last month after rising 0.6% in July.

Healthcare sector was boosted after Lazard Capital Markets said that shares in drug distributor McKesson may have hit bottom. McKesson gained 5.4% and AmerisourceBergen rose 4%.

Kraft’s announcement that it could make an additional $1bn revenue by 2013 pushed up consumer staples. Kraft’s shares rose 1.7%.

Chevron Corp was among the top decliners on the Dow with 0.4% decline.

European shares declined on Wednesday after analysts recommended investors sell companies from Drax Group to Logitech International. The Stoxx 600 lost 0.3% to 265. The UK’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX fell 0.2%, while France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.5%.

In current trading, most Asian shares declined on Thursday led by mining companies overshadowing speculation Japanese officials will take more steps to weaken the yen and bolster export earnings.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost less than 0.1% to 124 as of 10:55 a.m. in Tokyo. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 0.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading 0.2% lower at 21,685, with Shanghai Composite Index down 1% to 2,626.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average was up 0.3% after Prime Minister Naoto Kan said his government won’t tolerate “rapid movements” of the yen. Nikkei rose to a five-week high yesterday after the Japanese government intervened in the foreign-exchange market to weaken the strengthening yen.