Friday's early trade: Wall Street rebounds on tax cut hopes, retailers gain

Wall Street stocks rebounded from the prior session's losses early Friday on hopes that tax-cut legislation in Congress would reach the finish line as retailers rallied on strong Costco earnings. US stocks pulled back Thursday on reports of resistance among key senators to the long-awaited tax cut legislation. But investors appeared to be shrugging off those worries on Friday.
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 24,617.16, up 0.4 percent. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent to 2,664.52, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.3 percent to 6,878.89. Costco Wholesale jumped 4.3 percent after reporting that earnings for the quarter ending November 26 rose 17.4 percent to $640 million behind a 10.5 percent rise in comparable sales. The results boosted other big-box stores, including Wal-Mart Stores, Target and Best Buy. All three companies gained more than one percent.
Oracle slumped 6.1 percent after reporting a 10 percent rise in quarterly earnings to $2.2 billion. But revenues connected to cloud computing came in lower than expected. Freight railroad company CSX tumbled 6.8 percent as it announced that chief executive E. Hunter Harrison was on medical leave due to "unexpected complications from a recent illness." The board named chief operating office James Foote as acting chief executive.