US open: S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrials hit intra-day records

The main US equity gauges continued to glide higher, albeit on very light trading volumes, as is commonplace at this time of year and with just a handful of trading sessions left until the end of 2014.

Both the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 managed to hit intra-day record highs in the previous trading session and did so again on Friday.

As of 15:45 the S&P 500 was up by 8 points to 2,090 and the Dow Jones Industrials by another 54 to 18,084. However, the largest gains were to be seen in the Russell 2000, a gauge for the shares of small-capitalisation companies and this year´s laggard.

There was little in terms of company news-flow for markets to trade off of. Nevertheless, what economic and geopolitical news was to be had served as a reminder of the multiple headwinds which US stocks were still facing.

On Friday morning, Libyan government forces launched airstrikes against rebel artillery units which had fired on the Es Sider oil export terminal earlier in the week. At last count that Mediterranean country´s oil production was running at approximately 352,000 barrels a day, versus the about 850,000 barrel a day pace reached in October.

In parallel, data out overnight in Japan revealed that real wages fell at a 4.3% year-on-year clip in November, their largest drop since December 2009.

From a sector standpoint the best performance was to be seen in the followng industrial groups: Platinum&precious metals (2.48%), Non-ferrous metals (2.44%) and Biotechnology (1.93%).

Front month West Texas crude futures slipped 0.09% to reach $55.79 per barrel on the NYMEX.

US 10-year Treasury yields were lower by one basis point to 2.25%.

S&P 500 - Risers
Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) $8.01 +3.89%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $413.16 +3.26%
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $45.02 +3.09%
Noble Corporation plc (NE) $17.56 +2.96%
Nabors Industries Ltd. (NBR) $12.78 +2.90%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $93.93 +2.89%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $118.11 +2.57%
Transocean Ltd. (RIG) $19.25 +2.53%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $112.29 +2.45%
Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) $23.43 +2.27%

S&P 500 - Fallers
ONEOK Inc. (OKE) $49.71 -1.98%
EQT Corp. (EQT) $76.29 -1.49%
Range Resources Corp. (RRC) $55.04 -1.24%
F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV) $133.87 -0.92%
Monster Beverage Corp (MNST) $111.64 -0.82%
Constellation Brands Inc. Class A (STZ) $99.31 -0.78%
Scripps Network Interactive Inc. (SNI) $77.96 -0.74%
Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) $52.06 -0.72%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $19.71 -0.66%
Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) $48.20 -0.62%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $57.95 +0.85%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $31.69 +0.85%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $114.20 +0.64%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $105.25 +0.63%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $94.25 +0.57%
American Express Co. (AXP) $94.60 +0.55%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $162.65 +0.51%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $94.27 +0.47%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $86.83 +0.46%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $93.57 +0.46%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $47.95 -0.39%
3M Co. (MMM) $166.41 -0.33%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $102.39 -0.28%
Boeing Co. (BA) $131.09 -0.11%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $28.30 -0.02%9%