(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended slightly higher on Monday, driven by a rise in Meta shares and despite a sharp decline in manufacturing activity in the New York area that raised concerns about a slowdown in the US economy against the backdrop of debt ceiling negotiations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.14%, or 47.98 points, to 33,348.60 points.

The wider Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 12.20 points, or 0.30% to 4,136.28 points.

The Nasdaq Composite advanced for its part by 80.47 points (0.66%) to 12,365.209.

Meta Platforms (+2.2%) was a key driver for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 after Loop Capital raised its recommendation to “buy” versus “hold.”

Manufacturing activity in the New York area recorded a sharp drop in May, with an “Empire State” index at -31.8 after +10.8 in April, significantly higher than analysts expected , showed the monthly survey of the regional branch of the Federal Reserve.

“It’s always difficult because we’re in a period where bad news is actually good news from a stock perspective and vice versa, but the market always reacts when you have a bad number because everyone starts then worry about a recession,” said Tim Ghriskey, portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.

“So we want the economy to be weak enough to bring inflation down, but not so weak that it causes a recession,” he added.

Markets also remained subdued on talk of raising the US debt ceiling.

President Joe Biden said Sunday he is likely to meet with congressional leaders again on Tuesday and try to avoid a catastrophic default.

“We’ve been through this before, they end up coming to their senses and doing something, compromising and getting something instead of playing this sissy game,” commented Tim Ghriskey.

This week, with relatively little economic data, investors will focus on retail sales on Tuesday followed by weekly jobless claims and housing data.

(Written by Kate Entringer)

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