Stocks closed near session highs Tuesday on a holiday-shortened trading session, led by energy, as investors cheered a better-than-expected factory orders report.

The stock market will be closed Wednesday for the Independence Day holiday and will reopen, as normal, on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 72.43 points, or 0.56 percent, to close at 12,943.82. Alcoa led the blue-chip gainers,while Home Depot slipped.

The S&P 500 rose 8.51 points, or 0.62 percent, to end at 1374.02. The Nasdaq rallied 24.85 points, or 0.84 percent, to finish at 2,976.08.

The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, finished below 17, hitting a two-month low.

Among the key S&P sectors, energy led the gainers, while utilities lagged.

“We’re caught in a trading range and we’re in purgatory until we get some clarity on the election, Europe, and the domestic economy,” said Dan Genter CEO and CIO of RNC Genter Capital. “But the good news is that all that’s mostly priced in, so we’re at a reasonable multiple.”

On the economic front, factory orders rose 0.7 percent in May , according to the Commerce Department. Economists had expected a gain of 0.2 percent, according to a Reuters poll.

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