U.S. stock benchmarks opened modestly higher on Thursday, but enough to book fresh records, as investors bought technology stocks, as investors pored over speeches from several Federal Reserve officials and a key employment report on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded flat at 22,657, the S&P 500 index advanced 0.1% at 2,540. If the broad-market benchmark finishes with a record on Thursday it will market its longest string of all-time high closes, six consecutively, since 1997, according to WSJ Market Data Group.
Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said he is expecting on additional rate hike in December, during a speech in Austin. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index enjoyed the best opening bump, up 0.4% at 6,563. In corporate news, United Parcel Service Inc. fell 2.3%, while FedEx Corp. was down after Bloomberg reported that Amazon.com Inc. was testing a new delivery service. On Friday, the market will assess the Labor Department’s nonfarm-payrolls report.
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