| AFP | - |
New
York - US stocks Friday moved higher ahead of a series of appearances
by top US Federal Reserve officials, including Chairman Ben Bernanke.
US stocks open higher ahead of Bernanke speech
(AFP)
–
51 minutes ago
New
York — US stocks Friday moved higher ahead of a series of appearances
by top US Federal Reserve officials, including Chairman Ben Bernanke.About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 69.33 (0.42 percent) to 16,510.68.
The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 5.97 (0.33 percent) to 1,837.95, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 6.36 (0.15 percent) at 4,149.43.
Friday's early gains partially offset Thursday's losses in the first trading session of the year, after the spectacular equity rally of 2013. Analysts attributed Thursday's fall to profit-taking.
Bernanke, in his final month as head of the US central bank, was scheduled to speak at a conference on economics in Philadelphia Friday afternoon, amid hopes he will provide some hints on the direction of monetary policy.
Drugstore chain Ride Aid shot up 7.1 percent after reporting that same-store sales for December rose 2.9 percent over the prior-year period.
Delta Air Lines rose 3.8 percent after reporting that a key revenue-per-passenger benchmark rose 10 percent in December compared with a year ago. Delta said it benefited from "continuing strong demand."
Food company General Mills gained 0.2 percent afer announcing that it would produce Cheerios cereal without genetically modified ingredients in the US.
FireEye, which provides security to information technology systems, surged 26 percent after announcing it was acquiring another security company, Mandiant, for about $1 billion. FireEye said the deal would improve its capacity to detect and respond to incidents.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year bond rose to 3.00 percent from 2.99 percent Thursday, while the 30-year increased to 3.94 percent from 3.92 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
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