Thursday's early trade: bank, energy stocks lift indexes to record highs

10 Feb, 2017

Wall Street's three main indexes hit record highs on Thursday, amid gains across sectors, led by financial and energy stocks. The S&P 500 financial index rose 1.06 percent and was on track to snap a three-day losing streak after President Donald Trump said he would make a tax announcement in a few weeks. Oil prices rose 1.3 percent, extending gains to the second day, supported by an unexpected draw in US gasoline inventories. The S&P 500 energy sector was up 1.05 percent.
Investors have been on the sidelines in the past few weeks, awaiting more clarity from Trump on his promises of tax cuts, simpler regulation and higher infrastructure spending.
"The one thing that you can be certain about Trump is that he is going to be unpredictable," said Chris Gaffney, President of world markets at EverBank.
At 11:02 am ET (1602 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 101.2 points, or 0.5 percent, at 20,155.54, the S&P 500 was up 11.4 points, or 0.49 percent, at 2,306.07 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 25.82 points, or 0.45 percent, at 5,708.27.
Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher. The utilities sector, which is considered a defensive bet, was down 0.5 percent. Viacom was the biggest gainer on the S&P, rising 4.5 percent as its quarterly profit beat analysts' expectations. Coca-Cola fell 2.1 percent to $41.13 after the beverage maker forecast a drop in full-year adjusted profit. The stock was the biggest drag on the Dow and the S&P. Twitter sank 9.6 percent after the microblogging website reported its slowest revenue growth since going public in 2013.

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