While you were sleeping: Trump's lower taxes pledge sends stocks soaring

Wall Street climbed, sending the three US benchmark stock indexes to fresh record highs, as President Donald Trump said he would soon make an announcement "that will be phenomenal in terms of tax."

"We're going to be announcing something, I would say, over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax," he said in a meeting with airline executives, according to media reports.

At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 118.06 points, or 0.6%, to 20,172.40 after earlier touching an all-time high of 20,204.51.

The Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 0.6% at 5715.18 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index also increased 0.6% to close at a record 2307.87.

The US dollar strengthened and US Treasurys slid, pushing yields on the 10-year note five basis points to 2.397% from 2.349% on Wednesday.

"Lowering the overall tax burden on American business is big league," Mr Trump said, according to Reuters.

Airline stocks rise 
Ailine stocks rallied as Mr Trump promised to ease industry regulations and fund infrastructure upgrades that would the companies hire more staff.

JetBlue Airways gained 3.6%, American Airlines Group rose 3.2% and Delta Air Lines was up 2.6%.

Apple shares rose 0.6% to $132.27, near their closing record of $133 hit on February 23, 2015.

Gains in shares of Nike and Goldman Sachs, up 3% and 2.2% respectively, led the Dow higher.

Kellogg was among the latest companies beating earnings estimates. Shares of Kellogg rose 4.2% after the breakfast cereal maker posted a quarterly profit that bettered analysts' expectations and said it plans to expand its Project K cost-cutting programme.

Dunkin’ Brands Group rose 4.2% after the company swung to a profit for the fourth quarter, 

Coca-Cola, Intel fall
Bucking the trend, and the only two stocks in the Dow to decline, were Coca-Cola and Intel, down 2.4% and 1.4% respectively.

Coca-Cola posted results and an outlook that disappointed investors.

US crude oil for March delivery rose 1.3% to $US53.00 a barrel, 

Meanwhile, the latest US jobs data offered fresh signs of strength. A Labour Department report showed that initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 234,000 for the week ended February 4.

"There is no sign of a pickup in layoff activity," John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York, told Reuters.

"We continue to view the signal of extremely subdued layoffs from the jobless claims data as evidence of companies attempting to retain their workers in a tight labour market."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the session with a 0.8% increase from the previous close, bolstered by gains in bank shares as France's Société Générale posted better-than-expected earnings.

The UK's FTSE 100 Index added 0.6%, Germany's DAX Index gained 0.9%, while France's CAC 40 Index rallied 1.3%.

(BusinessDesk)