US open: Stocks resume rally as market shrugs off impeachment
US stocks opened higher on Thursday as investors digested news of the President's impeachment and some some mixed economic data.
As of 1510 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.26% at 28,311.76, while the S&P 500 was 0.16% ahead at 3,196.13 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.19% firmer at 8,844.13.
The Dow opened 72.48 points higher on Thursday after seeing out the previous session lower as House Democrats voted in favour of Donald Trump being impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
However, while market focus was still largely attuned to political developments in Washington on Thursday, major indices were somewhat steady as most market participants viewed the move as being unlikely to result in his removal from office given the Republican majority in the White House.
Trump became only the third president in US history to be charged with high crimes and misdemeanours.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "While the news cycle is full of last night’s impeachment of President Trump by House Democrats, financial markets have given the news a collective 'meh', and while US markets finished slightly lower, this news isn’t exactly a surprise to those who follow events in Washington DC.
The reality is no-one cares given that its highly improbable that the Senate will ratify proceedings, which means the story will inevitably die a death, and while Democrats will be able to point to a political victory ahead of next year’s Presidential election, it’s unlikely to mean that much unless they can get behind a credible candidate to go up against the President."
On the data front, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's business conditions index dropped to 0.3 in December from a reading of 10.4 in the previous month.
Elsewhere, weekly jobless claims fell to 234,000 from 252,000, according to the Department of Labor. However, the figure was still shy of a fall to 225,000 forecast on the Street.
Lastly, home-buying slowed down across the US in November, with many Americans being priced out of the market by rising prices and a shortage of listings.
The National Association of Realtors revealed that sales of existing homes fell 1.7% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35m.
In corporate news, Micron Technology shares were up 3.5% in early trade thanks to some strong results, while Cisco Systems was the best-performing Dow component at the bell - rising 1.5%
Nike, Scholastic, Accenture and FactSet will all report earnings throughout the course of the day.