NEW YORK — Stock indexes are closing slightly higher after a half-day of trading on Wall Street ahead of the July 4th holiday.
Encouraging news about the U.S. job market offset worries about a market sell-off in Portugal and an intensifying political crisis in Egypt.
U.S. markets closed at 1 p.m. Wednesday ahead of the Independence Day holiday Thursday. They will reopen Friday.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 56 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 14,988.
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose a point, or 0.08 percent, to 1,615. Technology stocks rose 0.6 percent, the most in the index.
The Nasdaq rose 10 points, or 0.3 percent, to 3,443.
Trading volume was light at 1.9 billion shares. Three stocks fell for every two that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
