US shares up on rate hopes

New York - Wall Street shares ended higher on Wednesday buoyed by expectations that interest rates will remain low and by a new wave of positive Chinese data adding to global recovery hopes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44.29 points in closing trades to 10 291.26, maintaining its positive run this week that included a Monday gain of more than 200 points.

The Nasdaq composite climbed 15.82 points (0.74%) to 2 166.90 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index added 5.50 points (0.50%) to a provisional close of 1 098.51.

Trading was lackluster amid a partial holiday marking Veterans Day.

Expectations that interest rates would remain low for some time fueled early buying of shares, traders said.

Federal Reserve officials indicated on Tuesday that the central bank could keep rates at virtually zero percent for some time due to the fragile nature of the US economic recovery.

"The Federal Reserve's continued commitment to historically low interest rates appears to have sparked another rally from Wall Street bulls," said Joseph Hargett of Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Other analysts said fresh positive economic data from Beijing had injected confidence into global recovery hopes.

"Encouraging industrial production and retail sales data out of China has been reported to be a source of support in the early going," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

While industrial production and retail sales in China picked up pace in October, demand for Chinese exports also improved, official data showed Wednesday, putting the government's growth target of eight percent well within reach for 2009.

Fresh economic data, such as those from China, "served to reassure investors that the economic recovery is real, spurring bulls on," analysts at Charles Schwab & Co said in a note to clients.

- AFP