US stocks closed higher Wednesday led by industrial and mining companies, as traders eyed the knock-on effects of higher metal and commodity demand and Japanese reconstruction.
The Dow was dragged upward by aluminum giant Alcoa, which added over three per cent, and manufacturing behemoth 3M which rose by 1.6 per cent as the costs of everything from aluminum to tin rose.
The prospect of massive reconstruction efforts in Japan pushed some sectors higher, while the general market was firm despite some poor US data.
"A late-day rally pushed the three major equity indices into positive territory," said Sara Kline of Moody's Analytics.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 67.39 (0.56 per cent) to 12,086.02.
The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 3.77 points (0.29 per cent) to 1,297.54, while the Nasdaq index rose 14.43 (0.54 per cent) to 2,668.30.
The move came despite the Commerce Department reporting that sales of new US homes slumped to the lowest level since the 1960s, offering more evidence of a lingering real estate crisis.
Sales tumbled nearly 17 per cent in February, the Commerce Department said, to a seasonally adjusted total of 250,000 sales during the month.
That marked the lowest number of units sold since 1963, when records began.
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