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NEW YORK, March 18 (AFP): Wall Street opened Friday mostly higher as the market kept momentum from this week's rally despite a sharp profit decline at American International Group and a revision increasing the losses at General Motors.
In the first trades, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 26.25 points (0.23 per cent) to 11,279.49 and the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index rose 2.30 points (0.18 per cent) to 1,307.63. Both indexes closed Thursday at their highest levels since May 2001.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was essentially flat, losing a fractional 0.04 point at 2,299.52.
On Thursday, stocks ended mixed after a spike in oil prices due to ongoing international tensions took some of the shine off inflation data that suggested the Federal Reserve could stop its rate-boosting cycle sooner rather than later.
"The main support for the bullish stock market tone is the creeping belief that the Fed may only raise rates one more time, or perhaps two," said Dick Green at Briefing.com.
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