Markets

US stocks rise as market seeks to move past trade angst

Published March 16, 2018 Updated March 16, 2018 04:12pm

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 24,946.29, up 0.3 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 2,755.75, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also gained 0.3 percent to 7,500.45.

US stocks have been pressured this week amid talk of additional US tariffs and as President Donald Trump has shaken up his Cabinet, replacing Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State with Mike Pompeo and reportedly planning to fire National Security Advisor HR McMaster.

The Dow has fallen nearly two percent since last Friday, a dynamic that sometimes entices buying by bargain hunters.

"This bull market has shown a propensity to take the bad with the good and ultimately put more stock (no pun intended) in the good," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

Among individual stocks, jeweler Tiffany tumbled 5.7 percent as it projected 2018 earnings below analyst expectations while it beefs up investment in e-commerce and marketing.

Adobe Systems rose 3.7 percent after reporting first-quarter revenues of $2.1 billion, a company record and a 24 percent increase from the year-ago period.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Press), 2018