Wall Street ends atop new record highs

US stock indices closed the second session of this week at fresh record highs, with Walmart, J&J, and Kruger marking strong profits and propelling Dow Jones, S&P 500, and NASDAQ to unprecedented heights. 

On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan spoke about economic outlook at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, where he noted that the option of raising interest rates in the next meetings is still on the table, adding that waiting too long before hiking overnight rates could raise the chances of economic recession.  

Earlier US data showed the JOLTS job openings down to 6.08 million jobs from 6.14M in July, missing expectations of 6.13M, as markets look forward to the FOMC's minutes for the September meeting, at which policymakers voted to hold interest rates unchanged at between one percent and 1.2% for the second session, while paving the way for normalizing the balance sheet by October. 

Wall Street marked consecutive record highs throughout October amid optimism over tax reforms proposed by president Donald Trump and his Republicans, with the upbeat gains carried out throughout this week as well. 

The Republican-dominated House of Republicans voted on Thursday on the spending plan for 2018 by a 219-206 margin, including a legislative tool to allow Republicans to move past Democrats and enact the tax bill with a simple majority in the Senate.  

Investors look forward to the start of the third quarter earnings season, with JPMorgan & Chase, and City Group expected to release their results tomorrow. 

Dow Jones rose 0.18%, or 42.21 points to 22,872.89, while Standard and Poor's 500 gained 0.18%, or 4.60 points to 2,555.24, as NASDAQ Composite advanced 0.25%, or 16.30 points to 6,603.55. 

Gold futures due on December 16 rose 0.12% to $1,295.30 an ounce from the opening of $1,293.80, as the dollar index slid 0.37% to 92.92 from the opening of 93.29, marking the lowest since September 26. 

Otherwise, US crude futures due on November 15 rose 0.81% to $51.33 a barrel from the opening of $50.92, while Brent crude futures due on December 15 added 0.49% to $56.89 a barrel from the opening of $56.61.