Investing.com - In a market driven by retail companies post-Thanksgiving, financial stocks were the surprise sector leader in midday trading as more certainty on Brexit lent support to global banks.
The S&P 500 Financials rose about 2% at 12:05 PM ET (17:05 GMT).
The EU approved the Brexit draft deal on Sunday. It’s now up to the UK House of Commons to vote on the agreement.
Also helping ease global concerns, Italy’s government moved to consider decreasing its budget deficit, possibly ratcheting down its standoff with Brussels.
Among active stocks, BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) gained about 4%, one of the big leaders, after it appointed senior managing director Geraldine Buckingham to head its push into Asian-Pacific.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) rose 3%, while Citigroup (NYSE:C) increased 3% and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) rallied 2.8%. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) gained 2% and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) was up 2.6%.