Investing.com – Wall Street traded higher on Tuesday on reports that U.S. lawmakers were making headway on tax reforms in a session with few other references.
At 11:22AM ET (15:22GMT), the Dow Jones gained 128 points, or 0.59%, the S&P 500 rose 16 point, or 0.65%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 65 points, or 1.04%.
Stock markets breathed a sigh of relief on a report that U.S. President Donald Trump’s top aides and congressional leaders had made significant progress on coming to an agreement over how to pay for tax cuts to both individuals and corporations.
There is a broad consensus, according to five sources familiar with the discussions cited by Politico, raising hopes that Trump will manage to fulfill promises to reduce taxes.
The news offered relief to investors who feared that recent political turmoil in Washington, with a large exodus of Trump advisers, would derail attempts to move forward.
In another session with no major economic reports, looked ahead to a gathering of central bankers at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in Wyoming, including speeches by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank president Mario Draghi.
The appearances from the two central bank chiefs will be the week’s main event as markets look for further indications of a shift away from extremely accommodative monetary policy.
While waiting for symposium to kick off, the dollar rebounded on Tuesday from more-than-one-week lows hit in the prior session.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up about 0.4% to 93.35 by 11:23AM ET (15:23GMT).
In company news, shares of Toll Brothers Inc (NYSE:TOL) sank 4% as the luxury home maker missed revenue estimates and it cut the top-range of its full-year margin forecast.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) gained more than 1% after the blue-chip defense contractor and rival Northrop Gruman were awarded contracts to make intercontinental ballistic missile systems for the U.S. Air Force.
Meanwhile, oil rebounded by 1% after the prior session's more than 2% decline as Libya’s Sharara oil field was reportedly closed again just hours after reopening due to a new protest group.
U.S. crude futures gained 1.03% to $48.02 by 11:24AM ET (15:24GMT), while Brent oil traded up 0.97% to $52.16.
Traders also looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report on U.S. crude inventories at 4:30PM ET (20:30GMT).