Wall Street opens higher as focus shifts to Biden

Wall Street opens higher as focus shifts to Biden

Joe Biden. File



Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street Tuesday as the earnings reporting season for US companies gets into high gear and as traders turn their focus to the transition to the administration of President-elect Joe Biden. The S&P 500 was up 0.7% in the early going. The Nasdaq and a measure of small-company stocks did even better.

Biden's nominee for Treasury secretary, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, begins her confirmation hearings Tuesday morning in front of the Senate Finance Committee. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America reported their latest quarterly results, and Netflix reports after the closing bell.

World markets were mostly higher Tuesday as the coming changing of the guard in the US raised hopes for more support for the economy and more aggressive measures to fight the pandemic.

Benchmarks were higher in Paris, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong but slipped in Shanghai.