NEW YORK — It was a quiet end to a wild month for financial markets.
Stocks edged higher Wednesday on a report that factory orders surged in July. The Dow Jones industrial average turned higher for the year.
The Dow’s four-day winning streak ended a tumultuous August that had the most 400-point swings in the history of the index.
A surge in factory orders indicated to investors that the manufacturing industry is still healthy. Orders rose 2.4 percent in July, the largest increase since March, after falling 0.4 percent in June. That decline caused worries that manufacturing, one of the best-performing areas of the U.S. economy since the recession ended two years ago, might be starting to sputter.
The Dow rose 53.58 points, 0.5 percent, to end at 11,613.53. It fell 4.4 percent for the month, although it is up 0.3 percent for the year. Aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. rose 3.6 percent, the most of the 30 companies that make up the Dow average.
Joy Global rose 1.3 percent after the mining- equipment maker said its earnings rose 46 percent because of strong global demand for commodities such as copper and coal.
That helped to push up other stocks in the mining-and-commodities industry. Equipment giant Caterpillar Inc. rose 1.3 percent.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 5.97, or 0.5 percent, to 1,218.89. It fell 5.7 percent for the month. Financial stocks were the worst performers in August as many worked to raise capital to comply with new regulations.
On Wednesday, nine of the 10 company groups that make up the index rose. The telecommunications industry was the only one to fall.
AT&T Inc. plunged 3.9 percent after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to stop the company’s $39 billion merger with rival T-Mobile USA.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 3.35, or 0.1 percent, to 2,579.46. It fell 6.4 percent for the month. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq each had their worst August since 2001.
