Nike, financial services push Wall Street higher

(Reuters) – US stocks rallied again on Friday as Nike shares hit a record high after the world's biggest shoe maker released a solid earnings report and bank reserves jumped.

Nike shares jumped 13% after the company's return to growth in North America in the last quarter and gave an optimistic forecast for the year.

S & P's financial sector, which caught up to a 13-day run of losses on Thursday, jumped 1.61% after US lenders cleared the second part of the Federal Reserve's annual stress tests.

Wells Fargo led the gains, up 5.9%, while Citigroup gained 2.4%, Bank of America 1.4% and JPMorgan 1.5%.

The gains in Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were lower as they offset the test with conditions.

Commerce Department statistics also showed that basic personal consumption (PCE) spending in May reached the Federal Reserve's 2% target for the first time in six years.

"Banking stocks really thrive in an environment of rising interest rates, we know that there are three or four rate hikes this year, and it seems like there's will have a fourth in December, "David McKnight, chairman of David McKnight & Co said. After a slight dip on a report that President Donald Trump has said he wants the US to withdraw from the World Trade Organization, the markets have regained their footing after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox Business Network that the report of Axios was wrong.

Friday's gains add a touch of hope to a week that was somewhat turbulent as the United States and China made trips back and forth on trade and tariffs as well as on investments Chinese in American technologies.

McKnight said that Trump did not want the trade war especially given the upcoming mid-term elections and "people recognize that trade wars are not going to happen, it's calming the nerves of some investors ".

At 10:58 am EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 279.90 points, or 1.16%, to 24,495.95, the S & P 500 up 25.72 points, or 0.95 % at 2,742.03 and Nasdaq Composite up 69.00 points. 0.92%, at 7,572.69.

Seven of the top 11 S & P sectors were higher, with the energy index rising 1.54% as US crude oil futures reached their highest level since November 2014, while the consumer discretionary sector increased by 1%.

Constellation Brands fell 6.6% after beer maker Corona announced a quarterly profit below expectations and maintained its full year earnings guidance that was missing estimates.

KB Homes grew 7.1% after second quarter results beat Wall Street estimates.

Increasing issues outnumbered declining issues for a 2.98 to 1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange and a ratio of 2.29 to 1 on the Nasdaq.

The S & P index posted seven new highs of 52 weeks and a new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 36 new highs and 36 new lows.