Wall Street hit new records amid solid earnings from corporate America including Whole Foods, while China posted better-than-expected trade data and Germany showed an unexpected increase in industrial production.
Shares of grocery-store chain Whole Foods jumped, last up 9.9 per cent, after the company raised its full-year forecast. Shares of retailer JC Penney also gained, last 6.7 per cent higher, as the department-store retailer's preliminary fiscal first-quarter sales were better than expected.
"This is the first time the news hasn't been horrific," Liz Dunn, an analyst at Macquarie Group in New York, told Bloomberg News, referring JC Penney results. "The numbers aren't that bad."
In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index increased 0.3 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.4 per cent. The S&P 500 climbed to a record 1,631.24 earlier in the session, while the Dow reached a high of 15,082.47.
Scott Black, president of Boston-based Delphi Management, said he expects the S&P 500 will extend its record rally, underpinned by the US Federal Reserve's stimulus measures.