US stocks join global rally ahead of earnings season
new york — Wall Street stocks pushed higher Tuesday, joining most global bourses in rallying ahead of fourth-quarter earnings season.
The aggressive buying that opened the new year appeared to be ebbing on Monday, and the Dow fell for the first time in 2018. But equity markets in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo all rose Tuesday.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen to 25,352.59, up 0.3 percent and more than retracing the loss seen in the prior session.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 2,752.85, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.1 percent to 7,162.55, which puts those indexes on track for records for the sixth straight day. The rally has been fed by strengthening global economic data and expectations for higher US corporate earnings after President Donald Trump signed a sweeping US tax cut into law in December.
In Europe, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.3 per cent to 5,504.55, while Germany’s DAX gained 0.1 per cent to 13,387.07 in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.3 per cent at 2,510.23.
In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.6 per cent to finish at 23,849.99. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1 per cent to 6,135.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.4 per cent to 31,011.41, while the Shanghai Composite inched up 0.1 per cent to 3,413.90. South Ko- rea’s Kospi lost 0.1 per cent to 2,510.23. Shares in Southeast Asia were mostly higher.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose to a record high close for a fifth straight session on Monday, gaining 0.2 per cent to 2,747.71. The last time the index led off a year with more consecutive gains was in 2010, when it had six. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.1 per cent to 25,283.00
a continuation of Monday’s bullish glow looks set for asian markets into Tuesday with few data points to observe
Jingyi Pan, Market strategist, IG
and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3 per cent to 7,157.39.
“A continuation of Monday’s bullish glow looks set for Asian markets into Tuesday with few data points to observe,” says Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore. The region is closely watching talks between delegates from North Korea and South Korea, the first such dialogue in two years. North Korea agreed Tuesday to send a delegation to next month’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.