US stocks drift up on surprise jump in home starts
18 Mar 2009 12:51 AM
Wall Street opened modestly higher today after a surprise jump in US housing starts buoyed sentiment .. offsetting another round of belt-tightening from aluminium maker Alcoa.
In the first trades .. the Dow Jones Industrial Average drifted up 4.14 points (0.06 per cent) to 7,221.11 .. after yesterday's profit taking ended a strong four-day rally.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 8.04 points (0.57 per cent) to 1,412.06 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index added 0.97 points (0.13 per cent) to 754.86.
