Wall Street recovered from a mostly down session today, ekeing out a gain as investors brushed off another slide in Chinese stocks.

Wall Street eked out a modest advance today after investors found little motivation in remarks by Federal Reserve officials and also shrugged off a warning from chip maker National Semiconductor Inc.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed to its highest level in 17 months today as strong earnings and merger news helped the stock market shake off a weak consumer spending report. The three main gauges posted a weekly and monthly gain.