US:Wall St opens higher after govt shutdown averted

[NEW YORK] Wall Street opened higher on Monday, led by technology and financial stocks, after US Congress negotiators averted a government shutdown later this week by hammering out a federal funding deal late on Sunday.

The House of Representatives and Senate must approve the deal before the end of Friday, as must President Donald Trump, to keep the government funded through the end of Sept 30. "We have some renewed optimism that the market strength will continue helped by strong earnings and as a government shutdown was averted," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey. "We're also coming off a weak trading session on Friday, and investors are keeping an eye on the jobs report later this week."

At 9.35 am. ET (1335 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13.15 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 20,953.66.

The S&P 500 was up 4.3 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 2,388.5 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 21.15 points, or 0.35 per cent, at 6,068.76.

Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were higher, led by identical gains of 0.35 per cent in the financial and technology indexes.

REUTERS