U.S. stocks finished higher Wednesday buoyed by low inflation data and demand for financial shares.

The Labor Department announced a bigger-than-expected fall in the February Producer Price Index, indicating inflation was subdued.

"It doesn't appear as if there is any inflation fears out there, the market is not spooked at all," Terry Morris, senior equity manager for National Penn Investors Trust Company in Reading, Pennsylvania was quoted by Reuters Thomson as saying.

"The course of least resistance is up, the trend is up, people are stepping up to the plate whenever the market pulls back."

At the close of trading the Dow Jones Industrials were up 47.69 points or 0.45% at 10,733.67.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 11.08 points or 0.47% at 2,389.09.

The Standard and Poor's 500 jumped 6.75 points or 0.58% to 1,166.21.

The U.S. dollar lost ground against most currencies, although the Japanese yen was largely unchanged.

Around the New York close the euro was trading at 1.3735. The Japanese yen was attracting little interest at 90.24.

The British pound was solidly higher at 1.5324, while the Swiss franc firmed to 1.0541.

The Australian and Canadian dollars rose to .9232 and 1.0094 respectively.