Wall Street rose overnight, pushing the Dow to a record high, as better-than-expected earnings from Citigroup bolstered optimism about the outlook for corporate profit growth in the world's largest economy.
In late afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.73 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.51 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.62 per cent.
Gains in shares of UnitedHealth and Visa, up 2.1 and 2 per cent respectively, led the advance in the Dow. The Dow set an intraday record of 17,088.43, before paring some of its earlier gains.
Shares of Citigroup added 3.1 per cent following its latest quarterly results, which also helped lift other US bank shares and the mood in general.
"The market has more room to run," Robert Pavlik, who helps oversee US$4.5 billion as chief market strategist at Banyan Partners in New York, told Bloomberg News. "It's going to be interesting to watch the amount of strength that it carries day to day."