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APRIL 9, 2018 / 4:58 pm
Wall Street rises but pares gains late after report of FBI raid
DJ: 23,979.10 +46.34 NAS: 6,950.34 +35.23 S&P: 2,613.16
+8.69 4/9
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall
Street’s major indexes rose on Monday as a softer stance by U.S. policymakers
on China tariffs powered a rebound from last week’s selloff, but stocks pared
much of their gains late in the session after a report that the Federal Bureau
of Investigation raided the office of President Donald Trump’s lawyer.
Technology and health stocks led the benchmark S&P
500’s major sectors. Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) was the biggest boost to the Dow,
while gains in Apple (AAPL.O) shares led the Nasdaq index.
Stocks climbed after
Trump’s new economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC that the president may be
open to forming an international coalition to grapple with trade issues
involving China. Investors will look for further signs of
China’s stance on trade relations when Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at
the Boao Forum economic conference on Tuesday.
But stocks began paring gains late in
the afternoon, a downward trend that accelerated after a report that the FBI had
raided the New York office of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, upon a
referral by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“Even if it ultimately ends up being nothing, the initial reaction is
almost always negative in the market,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of
trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
Investors
are looking forward to the start of earnings season to provide a sustained lift to U.S.
stocks, with big banks,
such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), Citigroup (C.N) and Wells Fargo(WFC.N), set to report first-quarter results on Friday. Analysts expect quarterly profits for S&P 500 companies to rise 18.5
percent from a year ago, which would be the biggest gain in seven years,
according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 46.34 points, or 0.19 percent, to
23,979.10, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 8.69 points, or 0.33 percent, to
2,613.16 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 35.23 points, or 0.51 percent, to
6,950.34.
AveXis Inc (AVXS.O) rose 81.6 percent after Swiss
drugmaker Novartis (NOVN.S) offered to buy the gene therapy
company for $8.7 billion. Merck shares
rose 5.2 percent after the drugmaker’s blockbuster cancer drug, Keytruda, met
the main study goal of helping previously untreated lung cancer patients live
longer. Shares of Leucadia National Corp
(LUK.N) jumped 11.6 percent after the company
said it would sell most of its non-financial assets to focus on investment banking and advisory services.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.10-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.13-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
Volume on U.S. exchanges
was 6.28 billion shares,
compared to the 7.3 billion average for the full session over the last 20
trading days.
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