NEW YORK, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday, as investors digested a batch of latest data, and strong shares of Apple contributed to daily market gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 227.61 points, or 0.85 percent, to 27,137.04. The S&P 500 rose 21.54 points, or 0.72 percent, to 3,000.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index rallied 85.52 points, or 1.06 percent, to 8,169.68.
The majority of the 30 blue-chip stocks in the Dow extended gains around market close, with shares of Apple up 3.18 percent, the second best performers in the tally.
Apple has remained in the limelight and extended straight share gains since Tuesday afternoon, after the tech giant unveiled its latest flagship products, including a new generation of iPhone, iPad and Apple watches.
Ten of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors traded higher around market close, with the health care and the information technology sectors both up 1.01 percent, leading the winners. Yet the real estate sector posted a decline of 0.32 percent, the only loser in the tally.
Shares of RH rose 5.08 percent, after the U.S. home furnishings retailer reported higher-than-expected earnings for the second quarter. The company also raised its outlook for the fiscal year of 2020.
On the economic front, total inventories of merchant wholesalers were 679.1 billion U.S. dollars at the end of July, up 0.2 percent from the revised June level and up 7.1 percent from the revised July 2018 level, the Census Bureau said on Wednesday.
Sales of merchant wholesalers in July registered 499.6 billion dollars, up 0.3 percent from the revised June level and virtually unchanged from the July 2018 level.
The Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand rose 0.1 percent in August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday. Yet the gain came lower than the 0.2 percent increase in July.
The advance in final demand prices is attributable to a 0.3-percent increase in the index for final demand services in August. In contrast, prices for final demand goods fell 0.5 percent.