Wall Street rises on durable goods orders

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

NEW YORK, Dec. 24 (Chinese media) -- Wall Street opened moderately higher Wednesday, after orders for durable goods topped estimates in November.

The U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday that durable goods orders fell one percent in November, much better than a three percent decline economists had expected.

The Commerce Department also said consumer spending dropped 0.6percent in November. The drop was slightly less than analysts had expected.

On the negative side, the Labor Department said initial applications for unemployment benefits increased to 586,000 last week, much more than the expected 560,000.

The Dow Jones rose 40.14 to 8,459.63. Broader indexes also moved higher. The Standard Poor's 500 index rose 2.86 to 866.02;and the Nasdaq climbed 3.96 to 1,525.50.