U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday afternoon, recovering from steep losses earlier in the session, helped by encouraging factory data and a pull back in oil prices.
Wall Street fell earlier after surveys showed global manufacturing activity remained stuck in a rut last month, with factory output from Asia and Europe barely improving as producers struggled to bring in new orders.
But, U.S. manufacturers fared better than their overseas counterparts in May, reporting slightly higher growth than economists expected, according to the Institute for Supply Management.
That helped ease fears of a slowdown in global growth and, along with a oil prices paring some losses on the likelihood of OPEC considering a new output ceiling, gave investor sentiment a boost.
Dow Jones: 17,789.67; +2.47; +0.01%
S&P 500: 2,099.33; +2.37; +0.11%
Nasdaq: 4,952.25; +4.20; +0.09%
Asian shares were steady on Thursday as Wall Street eked out modest gains after the latest batch of U.S. data provided few clues on when the Federal Reserve might raise rates, while a resurgent yen pressured equity markets in Japan.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat in early trading.
Japan's Nikkei skidded 1.3 percent, after the dollar sunk to a two-week low against the yen overnight following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's official announcement late on Wednesday of his widely expected decision to delay a sales tax increase.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC, Money Morning
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