Investing.com – Wall Street opened higher on Friday morning amid optimism that the U.S. administration could be closer to implementing a tax-cut plan.
The S&P 500 rose seven and a half points or 0.30% as of 11:03 AM ET (4:05 PM GMT) while the Dow composite jumped 77 points or 0.33% . Tech heavy Nasdaq Composite increased 22 points or 0.34%.
United States President Donald Trump cleared a major hurdle to his tax-cut plan on Thursday, when Senate Republicans passed a budget measure that clears the way for tax reform. Markets rose soon after the vote on Thursday and continued to rally into Friday.
Among the biggest gainers after the markets opened was PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL), which jumped 4.91% after it posted higher than expected earnings while media company McClatchy Co (NYSE:MNI) skyrocketed 11.42%.
Bank stocks also rallied, with Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) jumping 1.84%, JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) rising 1.05%, Citigroup (NYSE:C) increasing 0.73% and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) up 1.08%.
Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) fell 3.22% after a lackluster third-quarter of sales. General Electric (NYSE:GE) slumped 2.88% after its third-quarter earnings did not meet analyst expectations while luxury carmaker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slid down 1.48%. Biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) decreased 9.91% after a clinical trial of one of its key drugs failed.
Meanwhile existing home sales unexpectedly rebounded in the U.S. after Hurricanes Irma and Harvey as the economy continues to strengthen.
Stocks in Europe were mixed. In Germany the DAX fell 20 points or 0.16% while France’s CAC 40 was down two points or 0.04% and in Spain the IBEX 35 rallied seven points or 0.07%. London’s FTSE 100 inched down two and half points or 0.03 while the pan-European Euro Stoxx were down two and a half points or 0.08%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.34% or $1,285.62 a troy ounce while crude oil futures rose 0.43% to $51.47 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, jumped 0.48% to 93.45.