Investing.com – Wall Street rallied for the third-straight day led by a rise in banks as traders made bullish bets that tax reform and further rate hikes would spur quarterly earnings growth in financials.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 25,075.13. The S&P 500 closed 0.40% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 7077.92, up 0.40%.
Ahead of the start of earnings season in earnest next week, when major banks are slated to release fourth quarter earnings, investors piled into financials betting that tax reform, and further rate hikes would boost growth.
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and Citigroup (NYSE:C) closed the session more than 1% higher.
Economic data suggesting the labor market remained robust added to positive sentiment on equities ahead of the release of nonfarm payrolls due Friday.
Private payrolls grew by 250,000 for December, a sharp increase from the 185,000 private jobs created in the previous month, according to a report released Wednesday by ADP and Moody's Analytics. That beat economists’ forecast of 191,000.
Bank of Montreal said the ADP data showed robust gains “across the board” and could raise expectations for a bullish non-farm payrolls report due Friday, which would keep the Fed on track for more rate hikes.
In corporate news, investors continued to rotate from Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) to Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) after a report Wednesday suggested that Intel’s chips contain a security flaw.
'Bulls and Bears' on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) up 2.1%, International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) up 2% and DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) up 1.9%
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) down 1.8%, Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) down 0.4%, and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) down 0.3%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.