Wall Street hits record high as Trump promises tax plan soon

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - Wall Street's three main indexes hit record intraday highs on Thursday after President Donald Trump said he would make a "phenomenal" tax announcement over the next two or three weeks.

A post-election rally has sent Wall Street's indexes to record highs on bets that Trump would usher in an era of tax cuts, simpler regulations and higher infrastructure spending.

"Lowering the overall tax burden on American business is big league," Trump said in a meeting with airline executives.

Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at EverBank, said this was another 'Trump On' trade day.

"We're finally seeing some of the proposed policies being put into place."

 

At 12:39 p.m. ET (1739 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 125.94 points, or 0.63 percent, at 20,180.28, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 12.63 points, or 0.55 percent, at 2,307.3 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 32.24 points, or 0.57 percent, at 5,714.69.

Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher. The S&P 500 financial index <.SPSY> rose 1.3 percent and was on track to snap a three-day losing streak.

The utilities sector <.SPLRCU>, which is considered a defensive bet, was down 0.88 percent.

Among stocks, Viacom rose 2.5 percent as its quarterly profit beat analysts' expectations.

Coca-Cola fell 2.3 percent to $41.13 after the beverage maker forecast a drop in full-year adjusted profit. The stock was the biggest drag on the Dow and the S&P.

Twitter sank 10.7 percent after the microblogging website reported lower advertising revenue in its latest quarter.

Airline stocks, including JetBlue , Delta and United Continental rose more than 2 percent after Trump met with top executives of the companies.

A report from the Labor Department showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to a near 43-year low of 234,000 last week, pointing to tighter labour market conditions.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,907 to 950. On the Nasdaq, 2,037 issues rose and 739 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 36 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 115 new highs and 18 new lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)