Wall Street Perks Up as Growth Accelerates

Markets ended a volatile session nearly flat on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve gave no hint that a reduction in the pace of its bond-buying program is imminent. But the index finished July up 5 percent to mark its best month since January.

The Fed’s stimulus is seen by many as central to the stock market’s gain of nearly 19 percent so far this year.

By the end of trading, the Standard Poor’s 500-stock index was down less than 1 percent, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq added 0.27 percent.

Gross domestic product unexpectedly accelerated in the second quarter at a 1.7 percent annual rate, and private employers added 200,000 jobs in July, topping economists’ expectations. The ADP jobs data laid a firmer foundation for the year that could bring the Fed closer to cutting back its stimulus.

“It looks like this market wants to go higher,” said Catherine Avery, president of Catherine Avery Investment Management in New Canaan, Conn. “The G.D.P. number that came out this morning was a big surprise.”

In early trading, Facebook’s stock rose above its initial public offering price of $38 for the first time since its market debut, a milestone in the company’s effort to wipe away Wall Street’s skepticism about its business. But at the market close, the shares were off about 2.2 percent, at $36.80.

Shares in the industrial gas producer Air Products and Chemicals gained 2.9 percent, to $108.64, after the activist investor William A. Ackman said his Pershing Square Capital Management had acquired a 9.8 percent stake.

Shares in Symantec, the maker of Norton antivirus software, rose 9.6percent a day after it posted better-than-expected quarterly results as customers used more of its security products after a series of hacking attacks.

With quarterly results in from 60 percent of the S. P. 500 companies, 67.4 percent have exceeded earnings expectations — in line with the average results over the last four quarters. About 55 percent of companies have topped revenue expectations, more than the 48 percent average of the past four earnings seasons but below the historical average, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In Europe, strong euro zone unemployment figures gave a modest lift to stock markets on Wednesday morning.

Eurostat figures showed the number of unemployed across the 17 nations that use the euro fell for the first time since April 2011, providing further hope that the region’s economy could soon start showing signs of recovery.

Britain’s FTSE 100 closed up 0.76 percent and the CAC 40 in France gained 0.15 percent, while Germany’s DAX was little changed.

Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index tumbled about 1.5 percent. The Tokyo benchmark closed down 3.3 percent on Monday and then recovered about halfway on Tuesday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3 percent, to 21,883.66 points, while South Korea’s Kospi dropped about 0.2 percent, to 1,914.03.

Benchmarks in mainland China rose while those in Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan fell.

Wall Street Perks Up as Growth Accelerates