US open: Dow Jones up 200 points in early trade, S&P 500 hits another record high

Wall Street stocks moved mostly higher at the open on Friday, with the S&P 500 on track for its best week since April.

As of 1520 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.66% at 34,422.10, while the S&P 500 was 0.27% firmer at 4,278.06 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.05% weaker at 14,363.16.

The Dow opened 225.28 points higher on Friday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.

Friday's main focus was news that Americans continued splashing out at a stronger-than-expected pace last month, helped by faster than expected income growth. According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, personal consumption expenditures were flat on the month in May, ahead of consensus estimates for a reading of -0.3%.

However, PCE growth for May was marked up from a previous estimate of 4.7% to 5.0% and April's from 0.5% to 0.9%. Personal incomes also shrunk at a month-on-month pace of 2.0%, but that was less than the 2.7% drop expected by economists.

Elsewhere on the macro front, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index came in at a print of 85.5 for June, below consensus estimates of 86.5. Despite falling short of estimates, the print was still the second-highest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and higher than the 82.9 reading in May and 9.5% stronger year-on-year.

Also in focus early on Friday, president Joe Biden and the White House struck an infrastructure deal with a bipartisan group of senators yesterday, with the lawmakers crafting a roughly $1.0trn package capable of being pushed through Congress with support from both sides of the aisle. The agreement will include $579.0bn in new spending on transportation like roads, bridges and rail, electric vehicle infrastructure, and electric transit.

In the corporate space, Nike shares shot up 13.51% in early trading on the back of quarterly earnings of $0.93 per share, far ahead of consensus estimates for a reading of $0.42, while Bank of America and Wells Fargo were also trading higher after the Federal Reserve's annual stress test revealed the 23 major banking institutions in its 2021 assessment were "well above" the minimum capital required to weather a hypothetical economic downturn.

Going the other way, FedEx was in the red despite posting earnings that beat on both the top and bottom lines.