U.S. stocks rose on Friday, Dec. 15, as investors shrugged off worries over a possible stall in U.S. tax reform plans that pushed stocks lower in the previous session.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 157 points, or 0.6%, and has traded Friday above its record closing high. The index has risen for six days out of seven. Leading the Dow higher were Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Intel Corp. (INTC) . The tech sector and financial sectors were standouts on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) rose 1.3%.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9% and also traded above its record closing high. The Nasdaq also secured an intraday high after jumping 1% on Friday.
The Dow and S&P 500 were on pace to trade with gains for the week.
Markets ended lower on Thursday, Dec. 14, after some GOP lawmakers expressed doubts about the tax reform bill that was negotiated by the House and Senate. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said he wouldn’t vote in favor of the bill next week unless a child tax credit was expanded to millions of lower income families. Utah Sen. Mike Lee said he was undecided about the bill over the same reason. However, Donald Trump predicted that Rubio would vote in favor of the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul, and said Friday that lawmakers could pass the tax bill as early as next week.
A GOP conference is expected to sign off on the final language Friday, and release the full text of the bill in the evening, probably around 5:30 p.m. ET, CNN reported. The Wall Street Journal reported that Republicans will make more of the child tax credit refundable in a last-minute concession to Rubio and Lee.
The Empire State manufacturing index for December fell for a second straight month to 18 from 19.6 in November, while U.S. industrial production in November rose 0.2%, coming in just under estimates.
Gains on Wall Street broke with global markets which were mostly down on Friday. European markets traded mixed, while Asian shares finished the session to the downside.
Oracle Corp. (ORCL) shares tumbled, falling 4.3%, after the enterprise software company issued guidance about its cloud-computing business that disappointed inventors.
Oracle said total cloud revenue in the second quarter rose 44% to $1.52 billion, missing estimates, and forecast that its total cloud app and service revenue in the third quarter would only rise 21% to 25%, well below a consensus for cloud revenue to rise 42% to $1.69 billion.
Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) shares were up 4% after the company posted fiscal first-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, and said same-store sales in the period jumped 7.9%, and its digital platform grew by more than 41% from a year earlier.
Shares of software company Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) rose 1.3% after the software maker beat Wall Street’s sales and earnings expectations.
CSX Corp. (CSX) fell 8% on Friday following an announcement that CEO Hunter Harrison was taking medical leave.
Source: TheStreet.com by Joseph Woelfel | Original Link