Strong car sales drive US stocks US stocks rose, led by car makers and technology companies, as a Senate panel voted to authorise a limited military operation in Syria and the Federal Reserve said the economy maintained a ""modest to moderate"" pace of growth. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 97.99 (0.66 per cent) to 14,931.95. ""Managers actually are fairly bullish on the environment,"" Arvin Soh, a New York-based portfolio manager with GAM, said. ""The view has been, "yes we have some serious issues with Syria, but at the end of the day, growth is improving."" The S&P 500 briefly pared today's gain after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to authorise a limited military strike in Syria, the first step toward congressional endorsement of the effort. Republican House Speaker John Boehner yesterday said he supports President Barack Obama's call for military action. The full Senate is expected to consider the resolution on September 9. The Fed said today the economy grew from early July through late August, even as borrowing costs increased. The central bank's Beige Book survey of economic conditions in 12 Fed districts showed consumers spent more on travel and tourism, while manufacturing expanded ""modestly."" Fed officials have been scrutinising data to determine the timing and pace of any reduction in its $US85 billion in monthly bond buying. The central bank, which has said it may pare stimulus if the US economy improves in line with its forecasts, will hold its next policy meeting on September 17-18. Figures from the Labor Department on September 6 may show payrolls increased in August and the jobless rate held at 7.4 per cent. A report from Automatic Data Processing Inc. tomorrow is expected to indicate that companies hired fewer workers than in July. A manufacturing gauge published yesterday reached a two-year high. ""The employment number is going to help drive the Fed,"" Jim Landreth, a portfolio manager with 300 North Capital LLC in Pasadena, California, said. ""The Fed is going to be careful. They don't want rates to spike up again because housing has been one of the fundamental underpinnings of this recovery."" The S&P 500 has lost 3.2 per cent from a record on August 2 amid speculation the Fed will scale back its bond buying. There have been signs that the housing recovery has begun to slow as yields on 10-year Treasury notes rose to a two-year high last month. The stimulus helped push the benchmark equity gauge up more than 150 per cent from its March 2009 low. Citigroup downgraded US equities to underweight today, saying valuations are ""not as attractive as other parts of the world."" The firm upgraded the UK and emerging markets. These areas ""appear the cheapest major regions across the world,"" Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup's chief US equity strategist, said in a note. Emerging markets have a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 11.8 and the UK has a multiple of 13.3, the firm said. The benchmark gauge for US equities trades at 15.7 times profit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.