US stocks higher ahead of jobs data

Mild economic data gave Wall Street a moderate gain today as stocks survived a round of profit-taking ahead of the Labor Department’s June employment report. A favourable court ruling for Altria Group Inc lifted the Dow Jones industrials.

The market got an initial boost from economic and retail sales data that fed optimism about an end to the Federal Reserve’s string of interest rate rises. But traders were already looking ahead to Friday’s employment report – widely seen as a key indicator of the economy’s health – prompting some to hedge their bets and lock in profits.