US stocks edged up on Wednesday, supported for the second straight day by the banking sector as investors looked for bargains after recent massive write-downs fed optimism that the worst of the credit morass may be over.
Citigroup Inc, the largest US bank by assets, gave the second-biggest boost to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index after being battered by the eight-month-long lending crisis.
Financial services company CIT Group Inc was among the top percentage gainers on the New York Stock Exchange, only nine days after the firm drew down $7.3 billion of credit lines to stay afloat. The stock was up over 12 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 7.17 points, or 0.06 percent, to 12,661.53. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 4.59 points, or 0.33 percent, at 1,374.77. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 13.19 points, or 0.56 percent, at 2,376.23.
Shares of Citigroup rose 2.6 percent to $24.47, while shares of CIT jumped 12.2 percent to $14.55. Stocks also got a lift from stronger-than-expected results from Best Buy Co Inc, a possible sign that consumer spending was on stable ground. Shares of Best Buy, the No 1 consumer electronics chain, rose 2 percent to $44.34. On the Nasdaq, the heaviest-weighted advancer was Cisco Systems, up 1.9 percent at $25.45.