U.S. Stocks End Slightly Higher Following G7 Finance Minister's Conferen

4:12 PM, Jun 5, 2012 -- U.S. stocks closed with modest gains Tuesday following a better-than-expected reading on the services sector. The Institute for Supply Management's index of non-manufacturing businesses rose to 53.7% in May up from 53.5% in April.

This morning, markets were slightly negative as traders awaited the conference between finance ministers and officials from the G7 relating the the ongoing European debt crisis. According to Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi the result of the conference was an agreement between the officials to work together to solve the debt crisis in Greece and Spain.

More insight into the situation in Europe should be provided tomorrow, following the European Central Bank policy meeting.

Commodities were mostly higher. Oil futures climbed in the last half hour of trading Tuesday to finish at $84.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 0.4%. Natural gas was the big gainer today, climbing 1.3%, to finish at $2.45 per million British thermal units. Gold for August delivery rose $3, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,616.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In company news, General Communication, Inc. (GNCMA) and Alaska Communications Systems Group, Inc. (ALSK) announced today that they have signed definitive agreements to form The Alaska Wireless Network (AWN) that will hold and operate both company's wireless facilities. Under the terms of the deal, AWN will design and operate an Alaska statewide wireless network to provide next generation wireless service plans for GCI and Alaska Communications wireless customers. GCI and Alaska Communications will continue to market and sell these plans independently to their respective retail customers.

Here's where the markets stood at end-of-day:

Dow Jones Industrial Index up 26.49 (+0.22%) to 12,127.95

S&P 500 up 7.32 (+0.57%) to 1,285.50

Nasdaq Composite Index up 18.10 (+0.66%) to 2,778.11

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

(+) Nikkei 225 up 1.04% (+86.37) to 8,382.00

(+) Hang Seng Index up 0.40% (+73.44) to 18,259.03

(+) Shanghai China Composite Index up 0.15% (+3.37) to 2,311.915527

FTSE 100 closed for holiday

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) BLIN, Signed a multi-year agreement with UPS

(+) CACI, Wins contract with Department of Defense

(+) MDCO, Plans to Offer Convertible Senior Notes

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) SHFL, Beats on Q1 revenue, meets on earnings

(+) EDS, Reported Q1 results yesterday