NEW YORK -- The U.S. stock market inched modestly higher Wednesday, recovering more than half of what it lost the day before, as investors were able to set aside two disappointing economic reports.
CBS and other broadcasters rose after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of them over a startup Internet company in a closely watched copyright case. Monsanto rose after the agricultural company announced a big stock buyback.
"The trend for this market is still, for the time being, up," said Anastasia Amoroso, a global market strategist with JPMorgan Funds.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9.55 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,959.53. The index fell roughly 13 points the day before. The Nasdaq composite rose 29.40 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,379.76, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.38 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,867.51.
Consumer discretionary stocks were among the biggest advancers, a sector that includes broadcasters and other media companies. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Aereo would have to pay broadcast companies when it takes television programs from the airwaves and allows subscribers to watch them on smartphones and other portable devices.
It was a major win for the broadcast industry, which had argued that Aereo should have to pay for programming the same way cable and satellite providers must.
CBS rose $3.64, or 6 percent, to $62.48 and Walt Disney, which owns ABC, rose $1.22, or 1.5 percent, to $83.90. TV-station owners also rose. Sinclair Broadcasting jumped $4.56, or 16 percent, to $33.80.
Investors weren't fazed by two negative economic reports released Wednesday.
In a revised estimate, the Commerce Department said the U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 2.9 percent in the first three months of the year. Investors said the GDP report didn't tell them anything they didn't already know. Many have already attributed weakness in the U.S. during the first three months of the year to unusually harsh winter weather.
"We need to be looking toward earnings season next month, not at a report from three months ago," JPMorgan's Amoroso said.
Government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note, which falls when prices rise, dropped late Tuesday to 2.56 percent from 2.58 percent.
Pioneer Natural Resources and Enterprise Products rose after The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. government was loosening a long-standing ban by letting those two companies sell a certain kind of unrefined American oil internationally.
Pioneer rose $11.42, or 5 percent, to $233.07 and Enterprise rose $1.03, or 1.4 percent, to $77.14.
Shares of General Mills Inc. fell 3.6 percent to $51.76 for a fourth day of losses. The company reported quarterly earnings that trailed analysts' estimates and said it began a review of its North American manufacturing and distribution network looking to reduce costs.
U.S. stocks are poised for the third-slowest month in six years. About 5.6 billion shares have changed hands each day in June, trailing every month since 2008 except for the previous two Augusts.
Information for this article was contributed by Oliver Renick of Bloomberg News.
Business on 06/26/2014