While you were sleeping: UPDATED Dow tops 18,000 as stock rally continues

Stocks on Wall Street moved higher, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500 Index closer to a record high, amid expectations low interest rates will help underpin economic growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 66.77 points, or 0.4%, to 18,005.05 while the S&P 500 notched its third straight session of gains as it drifted toward its all-time high.

It hasn’t breached its record close of 2130.82 in more than a year, the longest dry spell since 2013, and closed up 0.3% at 2119.12.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3% to 4974.64.

Investors have remained cautious even as the market edges higher, traders and analysts said. The S&P 500 hasn’t posted a gain of 1% or more since May 24. 

“People are not 100% comfortable with the levels we’re at,” Larry Weiss, head of trading at Instinet, told the Wall Street Journal.

Oil pushes above $US50
US oil prices pushed further above $US50 a barrel and the US dollar fell.

Copper, gold and aluminium also benefited from a declining US dollar after Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen's comments prompted a revision of bets for next week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Traders now see a zero chance the Fed will raise rates at its meeting next week, down from 22% a week ago, futures contracts indicate, according to Bloomberg.

"The US dollar continues to remain soggy with June priced out and chances the Fed will move in July waning," Rabobank senior currency strategist Jane Foley told Reuters.

"Investors will need some good payrolls data and signs of inflation picking up before they are convinced that a rate hike in September is on the cards."

In the Dow, gains in shares of UnitedHealth and those of Caterpillar, trading 2.6% and 1.3% higher respectively, outweighed declines in shares of Goldman Sachs and those of Verizon Communications, down 0.8% and 0.7% respectively.

"Sentiment, as has been well documented, is pretty bad and the market tends to inflict the most pain on the most people. And the most people it seems are underweight in the market or out of the market."

Lululemon Athletica shares rose 4.9% after the yoga-wear maker raised its financial forecasts for the year. Signet Jewelers shares climbed 4%, one of the biggest gainers in the S&P 500.

A seven-week strike by Verizon wireline workers will crimp the company's second-quarter earnings and may cost up to 7c per share, the company's chief financial officer Fran Shammo told the Bank of America Merrill Lynch global telecom and media conference.

US crude oil rose 1.7% to $51.23 a barrel, up 95% since Feb. 11, which marked a 2016 low for both oil and stocks. 

US job market disappoints
The latest US economic data cast fresh disappointment on the jobs market. The Labor Department's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed a surprise increase in job openings in April to equal the highest level on record.

The rate of hiring fell to 3.5% in April, down from 3.7% in March, which was the slowest pace in almost two years.

Even so, the Commerce Department's quarterly services survey offered reasons for optimism on growth.

"The upward revision of services consumption also has favourable forward-looking implications for second quarter GDP growth," New York-based JPMorgan economist Daniel Silver told Reuters.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the session with a decline of 0.5% from the previous close. France's CAC 40 index fell 0.6%, while Germany's DAX index dropped 0.7%. The UK's FTSE 100 index rose 0.3%.

"Markets are generally struggling to find a direction at a time when economic data is not bad, but it's not great either," London-based CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson told Bloomberg.

The World Bank cut its 2016 global growth forecast to 2.4%, down from the 2.9% estimated in January, citing sluggish growth in advanced economies, stubbornly low commodity prices, weak global trade, and diminishing capital flows.

"Ultimately, the global outlook remains pretty weak," Mr Hewson says. "The World Bank did not just cut the forecast, it suggested the risks were tilted to the downside. Now we are getting a little bit of profit taking."

(BusinessDesk)