Markets Right Now: Stocks opening higher on Wall Street
Financial and technology stocks soared and investors sold the safe assets they have favored for most of this year.
At 9:42 a.m. ET (1342 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 135.31 points, or 0.74 percent, at 18,487.36.
TheS&P 500 (INDEX:.SPX)rose 18.62 points, or 0.86 percent, to close at 2,182.87, with financials leading eight sectors higher and utilities and telecommunications lagging. The Dow and S&P 500 set all-time records recently and the Nasdaq is within 1 percent of the all-time high it set in July 2015.
Shares of banks including JPMorgan JPM.N , Bank of America BAC.N and Citigroup C.N , which stand to gain if the Fed raises rates, rose between 2 percent and 3 percent.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.54 percent.
The Nasdaq is up 176.79 points, or 3.5 percent. Bank stocks rose on the prospect of higher interest rates and consumer companies rose as investors hope consumers will have more money to spend.
Investors also digested a heavy slew of European corporate earnings dominated by some of the region’s biggest banks and awaited the first estimate of second-quarter United States growth.
Exxon (XOM.N) and Chevron (CVX.N) were down 3.1% and 3.3%, respectively, as the biggest drags on both the Dow and the S&P 500.
Kraft Heinz (KHC) reported above-consensus second quarter adjusted earnings per share and in line revenues. Average hourly wages rose by 8 cents.
Security software maker FireEye tumbled after it reported weak sales, cut its forecasts and announced job cuts. Merck was the largest gainer among S&P 500 stocks, and Bristol-Myers Squibb took the largest loss. AstraZeneca, which is also studying a lung cancer drug regimen, added 34 cents, or 1 percent, to $34.64.
Oil prices fell about 1.3 percent as a rise in OPEC production and US oil rig additions continued to weigh on the market.
OVERSEAS: Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5 percent while the CAC-40 in France gave up 0.7 percent. Its stock advanced 58 cents, or 8.4 percent, to $7.48.
Chinese mainland shares edged up at the open, with the Shanghai composite up 0.11% and the Shenzhen composite higher by 0.28%.
In commodities, WTI crude was little changed today (down -0.1%) but was up 1.82% on the week.
Oil futures (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-futures-ease-finding-stability-around-40-a-barrel-2016-08-05) declined 13 cents to settle at $41.80 a barrel, while gold prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-futures-sink- after-strong-us-jobs-report-2016-08-05) fell 1.7% to settle at $1,344.40 an ounce after the jobs report.
Japan’s Nikkei rose, closing up 92.43 points, or 0.56 per cent, at 16,569.27.