US stocks rise on data, dovish ECB meeting

Wall Street stocks rose Wednesday following a wave of mostly solid US data and a fresh confirmation of ultra-easy money policies by the European Central Bank.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 18,078.84, up 66.90 points (0.37 percent).

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 4.66 (0.22 percent) to 2,114.26, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 22.71 (0.45 percent) to 5,099.23.

Economic reports showed a big drop in the US trade deficit in April, slower growth in the US services sector in May and a solid 201,000 new private-sector jobs in May.

The Federal Reserve's Beige Book reported that the US economy returned to modest-to-moderate growth during April and May after stalling in the first quarter of the year.

ECB President Mario Draghi praised the bank's stimulus policies and said there were no plans to end them more quickly than planned.

"As long as you have a central bank providing monetary support that's going to be a positive sign for investment in equity markets, be it European or US," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities.