Wall Street's main indexes were slightly higher in late morning trading on Thursday, helped by gains in technology stocks. A mere 0.4 percent rise in Apple led the three indexes higher, an indication of the muted trading activity in the week ahead of the New Year holiday.
Commodities were in the spotlight, with oil prices near their two-and-a-half-year highs and copper at four-year peak, helping global equities hit record levels. The benchmark S&P 500 has climbed about 20 percent this year, on track to record its best annual gains since 2013, boosted by robust economic growth and solid corporate earnings.
The rally is widely expected to extend into 2018 fuelled by gains from a new US tax law that lowers tax burden on corporates. "Tax cuts will produce an increase in earnings and that is now incorporated into official sell-side estimates," said Brant Houston, managing director at CIBC Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management in Colarado.
"However, I don't think we should get used to returns like this, the trends looking forward will be more subdued than we saw in 2017." The dollar slipped to a four-week low against a basket of currencies, under pressure from a recent dip in US 10-year bond yields. A weaker dollar tends to boost revenue of companies with large global presence.
At 10:57 am ET (1557 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 53.18 points, or 0.21 percent, at 24,827.48. The S&P 500 was up 2.2 points, or 0.08 percent, at 2,684.82 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 3.57 points, or 0.05 percent, at 6,942.90.
Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with the technology index's 0.31 percent rise topping the list. The high-flying FANG stocks - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet - also contributed to the rise.
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