Wall St. up despite gov’t shutdown threat

NEW YORK (Reuters) – US shares rose on Friday, led by gains in consumer stocks, even as a government shutdown loomed.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit record closing highs, while the Dow ended the day higher after trading in a narrow range.

Nike Inc., Philip Morris International Inc. and Home Depot Inc. rose between 1.5% and 4.8% on upbeat analyst expectations, helping to boost the S&P 500. Conversely, losses in International Business Machines Corp. and American Express capped gains on the Dow.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53.91 points, or 0.21%, to close at 26,071.72, the S&P 500 gained 12.27 points, or 0.44%, to 2,810.3 and the Nasdaq Composite added 40.33 points, or 0.55%, to 7,336.38.

For the week, the Dow rose 1.04%, the S&P 500 added 0.86% and the Nasdaq gained 1.04%.

Nine of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 1.1% gain in the consumer staples index and a 0.9% rise in consumer discretionary stocks .

A disappointing full-year profit forecast from IBM pushed its shares down 4.0%, the biggest single-day loss since July.

American Express slipped 1.8% after posting its first quarterly loss in 26 years and suspending share buybacks for the next six months.

“The market has a few jitters as the result of a potential shutdown,” said Kevin Miller, chief executive of E-Valuator Funds in Bloomington, Minnesota. “From a longer-term perspective, corporate earnings are still strong, and we’re about to engage in the benefits of tax reform.”

The US Senate failed to avert a shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline on the spending measure amid lingering disagreements between Democrats and Republicans.

The Bank of Israel on Friday set its representative rate for the US dollar at NIS 3.4060, for the Canadian dollar at NIS 2.7446, for the Australian dollar at NIS 2.7353, and for the South African rand at NIS 0.2801.

The central bank set the representative rate for the euro at NIS 4.1796, and for 100 yen at NIS 3.0801.