US stocks were higher in early afternoon trading on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 hitting a record intraday high led by gains in financial stocks, and investors focused on an Apple event where the company is set to launch its new iPhone. Concerns around the severity of Hurricane Irma's financial impact receded as it weakened to a tropical depression, while investors shrugged off fresh developments related to North Korea.
"There's a relief factor, at least for the moment, that the North Korea situation has gone a little bit quiet, and the fact that the hurricane over the weekend was not as bad as expected," said Dave Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management. Apple's shares inched 0.3 percent higher as the event to launch the 10th anniversary edition of the iPhone kicked off.
At 12:35 pm ET (1635 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 65.95 points, or 0.3 percent, at 22,123.32 and the S&P 500 was up 6.58 points, or 0.26 percent, at 2,494.69. The Nasdaq Composite was up 13.24 points, or 0.21 percent, at 6,445.50. Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 1.4 percent rise in telecom services index.
Financials rose more than 1 percent, with the six major banks up between 1.5 percent and 2.6 percent, after Goldman Sachs unveiled a growth plan that could add as much as $5 billion in revenue annually. McDonald's shares fell more than 3 percent on a report that a research firm had raised concerns about the restaurant chain's third-quarter sales. DowDuPont rose 1.77 percent after the company said it was making changes to a plan of splitting itself into three.
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