Wall Street higher as tech stocks advance

Wall Street`s main indexes rose in thin holiday trading on Thursday, helped by gains in technology stocks.

Apple was the biggest driver of the three indexes, with the high-flying FANG stocks - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet - also contributing to the rise.

Gains in commodity prices, lower U.S. bond yields and a weaker dollar propelled world stocks to new record highs on Thursday.

The dollar slipped to a four-week low against a basket of currencies, under pressure from a recent dip in U.S. 10-year bond yields. A weaker dollar tends to boost revenue of companies with large global presence.

Oil prices held near their highest in two-and-a-half years, while copper futures traded at four-year highs.

The benchmark S&P 500 has climbed about 20 percent this year, on track to record its best annual gains since 2013, boosted by robust economic growth and solid corporate earnings.

A new tax law in the United States that lowers tax burden on corporates is also expected to fuel the rally in 2018.

"The strength of the market has been encouraging this year," said Neil Massa, senior equity trader at Manulife Asset Management in Boston.

"The trend has been higher all year and a lot of people have been waiting for a pullback to get into the market, but they never really had that opportunity, and that`s surprising."

At 9:33 a.m. ET (1433 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 53.08 points, or 0.21 percent, at 24,827.38 and the S&P 500 was up 3.04 points, or 0.11 percent, at 2,685.66. The Nasdaq Composite was up 13.40 points, or 0.19 percent, at 6,952.74.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with the technology index`s 0.31 percent rise topping the list.

Bitcoin, which has gained more than 14,000 percent this year, fell more than 7 percent to trade at $14,237 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.

Live Ventures, owner of internet marketing firm LiveDeal, surged more than 80 percent after reporting a jump in annual revenue.

J.B. Hunt Transport fell about 3 percent after the logistic services provider forecast current-quarter profit below estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,619 to 844. On the Nasdaq, 1,400 issues rose and 847 fell.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)