Wall St opens higher after manufacturing data

Also, oil prices steadied

Wall Street opened slightly higher on Thursday as data showed an uptick in US manufacturing activity and oil prices steadied.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 28.73 points, or 0.17 percent, at 16,513.72, the S&P 500 3.99 points, or 0.21 percent, at 1,933.79 and the Nasdaq Composite index 12.27 points, or 0.27 percent, at 4,554.87.