Dow Leaps with Bank Shares



U.S. equities traded higher on Wednesday as bank stocks led the charge.

The Dow Jones Industrials continued its climb Wednesday, leaping 166.96 points at 21,477.62, with Goldman Sachs and Disney contributing the most gains

The S&P 500 bounced higher 20.25 points to 2,439.63,.with financials rising 1.5% to lead advancers.

The NASDAQ rocketed 58.78 points, or nearly 1%, to 6,205.40

Investors braced for the release of the Federal Reserve's stress test results.

Analysts expect several big banks to come out of the test with substantial increases in return to shareholders — potentially using cash reserves to pay out more than 100 percent of their profits. As a result, higher figures would also reflect banks' confidence in their own financial health.

Shares of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs both climbed about 1%.

Most of tech rebounded Wednesday with Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Netflix all trading higher. Shares of Amazon briefly dipped lower after President Donald Trump took a swipe at CEO Jeff Bezos on Twitter.

The tech sector has been the stalwart of the U.S. stock market, rising about 17% for the year. But the tech sector dropped 1.6% Tuesday.

Financials entered Wednesday's session as the second-best-performing sector over the past month, rising 2.4% amid the prospects of higher interest rates.

In economic news, mortgage applications fell 6% last week, while pending home sales fell for the third straight month in May.

Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note tailed off, raising yields to 2.22% from Tuesday’s 2.21%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices gained 32 cents to $44.56 U.S. a barrel

Gold prices gained $3.20 to $1,250.10 U.S. an ounce.