Stocks end modestly higher after a choppy day of trading

Major stock indexes weathered a bout of choppy trading on Wall Street Wednesday and closed higher for the third day in a row.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, with 62% of the stocks within the benchmark index closing higher. The muted trading followed a strong start to the week that included the index's biggest gain since March. With the latest gain, the S&P 500 has now recovered all of its losses from its two-week skid heading into this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced back from an early drop to eke out a 0.1% gain, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.6%.