NEW YORK (July 1, 2009)--The stock market's third quarter began on a positive note Wednesday after some reassuring data on manufacturing and the housing market.

The market's gains were tempered, though, ahead of the release of Thursday's June jobs report.

The Labor Department is expected to show another uptick in the unemployment rate to 9.6 percent.

In the last minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 56.00, or 0.7 percent, at 8,503.00.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 3.87, or 0.4 percent, to 923.19.

The Nasdaq composite index was up 10.68, or 0.6 percent, at 1,845.72.