NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks climbed early Wednesday, extending the prior session’s rally, as markets digested mixed earnings and economic data ahead of the Thanksgiving day holiday.
Orders for durable goods rose more than expected in October, pointing to resilient demand, while weekly jobless claims ticked higher.
The reports come ahead of the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes later Wednesday, which will offer more color on the central bank’s latest large interest rate hike to counter inflation.
Analysts were expecting a quiet day of trading ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving break, when markets will be closed.
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3 percent at 34,211.97.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.4 percent to 4,018.23, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.6 percent to 11,238.18.
Among individual companies, tech giant HP climbed 1.5 percent after announcing it plans to trim up to 6,000 jobs over the next three years in the latest downsizing announcement from the slumping tech sector.
HP reported better-than-expected earnings, but released projections that lagged estimates.
Software company Autodesk slumped 8.1 percent after it said free cash flow would be lower than expected in the near-term because it sealed fewer multi-year contracts with up-front cash in a “challenging” macroeconomic environment.
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