NEW YORK, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street moved moderately higher Wednesday, after the U.S. government posted a larger-than-expected increase in orders for big-ticket manufactured goods and oil spike boosted energy stocks.
The U.S. Commerce Department reported orders for durable goods rose 1.3 percent last month, far above the slight 0.1 percent increase that economists had expected.
Light, sweet crude was up 1.76 U.S. dollars to 118.03 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as the market concerned that hurricane Gustav may slam into oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and a weekly report showed a decline in oil inventories.
The Dow Jones rose 40.22 to 11,453.09. Broader indexes also traded higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.65 to 1,274.16; and the Nasdaq advanced 7.09 to 2,369.06.
