NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose early Wednesday following a round of mostly solid corporate earnings while digesting talk of fresh US tariffs from President Donald Trump.
Shares of insurance giant Travelers, consumer products company Procter & Gamble and United Airlines all rose following earnings releases.
Meanwhile, investors took in stride comments from Trump threatening 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, along with new levies on imports from Europe.
Stocks have largely shrugged off Trump’s potential flood of tariffs, viewing the threats as a negotiating tactic.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1 percent at 44,086.30.
Wall St advances with focus on Trump’s trade policy
The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.5 percent to 6,079.22, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.0 percent to 19,957.86.
Among individual companies, Oracle jumped 5.4 percent following a Trump announcement of a $500 billion investment to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence led by Oracle, along with Japanese giant Softbank,and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
The venture comes as big tech players are scrambling to meet AI’s voracious computing needs, as well as find the electric power necessary to expand the new technology.
American Dollar Exchange Rate