Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The stock market's third quarter began on a positive note after some reassuring data on manufacturing and the housing market.

The market's gains were tempered, though, ahead of Thursday's June jobs report. The Labor Department is expected to show another uptick in the unemployment rate to 9.6%.

In the last minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average is up 56.00, or 0.7%, at 8,503.00. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 3.87, or 0.4%, to 923.19. The Nasdaq composite index is up 10.68, or 0.6%, at 1,845.72.