Friday's Stock Market Open: US Equities Climb As Investors Focus On Trade Deals

U.S. stocks traded higher on Friday at noon, as traders continue to ignore the impeachment of President Donald Trump and focus on trade deals with China, Mexico and Canada. Also, Brexit passed its first hurdle in the U.K. parliament.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 113.11 points to 28,490.07 while the S&P 500 climbed 17.38 points to 3,222.75 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 35.84 points to 8,923.06.

British Members of Parliament passed Boris Johnson’s bill for the UK to leave the European Union on January 31. The bill also prohibits the government from extending the transition period beyond 2020.

Traders are likely buoyed by comments from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who said Thursday he expected the U.S. and China to sign their phase one trade deal in early January. Also, the House Of Representatives passed the U.S-Mexico-Canada trade deal on Thursday.

The U.S. government’s third and final reading of third quarter gross domestic product growth was left unchanged at 2.1%.

The University of Michigan said its final reading of its December consumer sentiment index came in at 99.3, up from 96.2 in November.

Consumer spending rose 0.4% in November, the government said on Friday – it was the biggest increase since July.

The cost of goods and services (the PCE price index) rose 0.2% -- making the yearly rate of inflation move up to 1.5%.

In a somewhat surprising move, the Bank of England named Andrew Bailey as governor to succeed Mark Carney. Bailey is chief of the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates London’s financial center, but is independent of the government. Bailey has been criticized for mishandling various corporate scandals.

The U.K.’s third quarter gross domestic product was upwardly revised to 0.4% from the previous 0.3% estimate – but still the economy expanded only 1.1% year-over-year, the weakest annual rate since early 2018.

Overnight in Asia, markets finished mixed. The Hang Seng gained 0.25% while Japan’s Nikkei-225 fell 0.2% and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.4%.

European markets all finished higher with the FTSE 100 up 0.11% while Germany's DAX rose 0.81% and France's CAC 40 climbed 0.82%.

Crude oil futures fell 1.16% at $60.47 per barrel and Brent crude fell 0.38% at $66.16. Gold futures slipped 0.24%.

The euro fell 0.41% at $1.1076 while the pound sterling gained 0.19% at $1.3035.