Stubbornly high unemployment is regarded as the biggest obstacle for a sustainable economic recovery. The U.S economy rebounded strongly last year, fueled by government stimulus and businesses rebuilding inventories from record low levels, however that momentum seems to fade since spring.

Investors were cautiously awaiting the revision of second- quarter gross domestic product growth, which is due out on Friday. Most economists were expecting the number to fall below 1.5 percent from the previous 2.4 percent, another strong evidence to show the economy growth was losing steam.

Also drawing attention, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is going to give his assessment on the economic recovery at an annual Fed symposium on Friday. Bernanke's speech is to be closely watched by the market as it is his first public comments since the Fed announced it would invest proceeds from its holdings of mortgage bonds to buy more long-term Treasury securities to prop up the recovery.

On foreign exchange market, the euro rebounded from 1.2657 dollars to 1.2703 dollars in late New York trading.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 84 cents to settle at 73.36 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent crude jumped 1.54 dollars to settle at 75.02 dollars a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.

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