Wall St ends higher with Nasdaq up over 1%

The Dow rose 81.38 points, or 0.18%, to 44,193.12, the S&P 500 gained 45.87 points, or 0.73%, to 6,345.06 and the Nasdaq gained 252.87 points, or 1.21%, to 21,169.42.

NEW YORK: US stocks ended higher on Wednesday, led by a more than 1% gain in the Nasdaq, as Apple shares climbed after news of its plans to announce a domestic manufacturing pledge, and as some companies delivered upbeat earnings reports.

Shares of Apple jumped 5.1% and provided the biggest boost to all three of the major indices after a White House official said the company would announce a US$100-billion domestic manufacturing pledge.