NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks were modestly higher in early trading on Thursday ahead of a Group of Seven summit expected to highlight trade tensions between the US and other major economies.
About 15 minutes into the day's session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 25,250.56, up 0.4 percent.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 2,778.37, extending a four-day streak of gains, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.1 percent from Wednesday's record close to 7,694.26.
"The stock market is in a good mood this week. That much is clear," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.
The gains have come "despite a deteriorating trade backdrop, the rise to power of a euroskeptic coalition in Italy, chatter that the ECB is going to start discussing an end to its QE program and warnings from airlines about the negative impact of higher fuel costs," said O'Hare.
Investors were looking ahead to a summit in Canada beginning Friday in which G7 heads of state are expected to take President Donald Trump to task for a series of aggressive trade actions that have aroused fears of a trade war.
"We know certainly that there will be frank and sometimes difficult discussions around the G7 table, particularly with the US president on tariffs," Canadian President Justin Trudeau told reporters on Wednesday.
Petroleum-linked shares were among the leaders on Thursday, with Dow member Chevron up 2.1 percent, Halliburton gaining 1.6 percent and Apache adding 2.8 percent.
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