Wall St higher as healthcare, consumer stocks rise

By Abhiram Nandakumar

REUTERS - Wall Street added to its gains in late morning trading on Friday, with the S&P 500 on track for its best week in a year, as healthcare and consumer stocks rose.

The Dow Jones industrial average turned positive for the year, led by a 4.6 percent rise in Nike which announced a $12 billion share buyback and a 2-for-1 share split.

Healthcare was the top gainer among the 10 major S&P sectors, led by Allergan's 3.3 percent increase.

The drugmaker rose on reports that the U.S. Treasury's new tax inversion rules were unlikely to thwart its proposed deal with Pfizer.

Earlier this week, minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's October meeting hardened expectations of a December rate hike but showed policymakers were cautious on further hikes.

"I think with the lack of catalysts or a large news story, the market wants to move higher and should end the day higher," said Tim Courtney, CIO of Exencial Wealth Advisors.

At 11:01 a.m. ET (1601 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was up 124.67 points, or 0.70 percent, at 17,857.42, the S&P 500 was up 10.54 points, or 0.51 percent, at 2,091.78 and the Nasdaq Composite index was up 27.02 points, or 0.53 percent, at 5,100.66.

The energy sector was the lone loser, shedding 0.77 percent.

Abercrombie & Fitch surged 19.3 percent to $23.25 after its quarterly profit more than doubled and same-store sales fell less than expected.

Foot Locker rose 4.4 percent to $64.24 and Ross Stores 7.8 percent to $49.82 after results.

Intuit was up 5.3 percent at $102.59 after the Tax-preparation software maker forecast full-year profit above estimates.

Autodesk fell 4.5 percent to $59.60 after it posted a third-quarter loss.

Sprint fell 4 percent to $3.89 after the wireless carrier said it would raise about $1.1 billion in cash through a sale and lease-back deal with a company backed by Japan's SoftBank.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,925 to 977. On the Nasdaq, 1,753 issues rose and 835 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 29 new 52-week highs and six new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 59 new highs and 59 new lows.

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)