Wednesday's early afternoon trade: tech, industrials and financials shine

Wall Street's main indexes were higher on Wednesday, led by technology and industrial stocks as well as a recovery in the financial sector. Bank stocks were trading lower for much of the session following underwhelming results from Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.
Goldman Sachs was down 2.28 percent after posting its first quarterly loss in six years on tax-related charges and a sharp drop in trading revenue. BofA fell 0.64 percent after the second-biggest US lender reported profit that nearly halved as it booked a $2.9 billion charge due to the new federal tax law.
"You saw a lot of earnings estimates increase coming into earnings season, certainly after tax cuts. So one has to wonder if a lot of that optimism has been baked in," said Marcelle Daher, co-head of North American asset allocation at John Hancock Financial Services in Boston. "As you continue to see muted trading, and particularly a flattening of yield curve that tends to depress net interest margin, the bank stocks could be reacting to that."
At 12:28 pm ET (1728 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 212.76 points, or 0.82 percent, at 26,005.62. The index hit the 26,000 milestone for the first time on Tuesday, its fastest 1000-point rise. The S&P 500 was up 16.75 points, or 0.60 percent, at 2,793.17 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 42.32 points, or 0.59 percent, at 7,266.00. Wall Street has rallied strongly in the new year, with the S&P 500 gaining 4.15 percent so far and posting only two sessions of losses, partly on hopes of a robust earnings season.