New York---General Electric's announcement that it will largely exit financial services helped lift US stocks in early trade Friday as Apple began taking orders for its new watch.
About 40 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 18,000.90, up 42.17 points (0.23 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 5.16 (0.25 percent) to 2,096.34, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 7.57 (0.15 percent) to 4,982.13.
GE surged 8.1 percent after announcing it reached deals to sell $26.5 billion in real estate assets as part of a plan to pare off most GE Capital assets over the next 24 months.
The industrial conglomerate also announced a new $50 billion share buyback program.
Apple slipped 0.3 percent as the tech giant began taking orders for the Apple Watch. First deliveries will begin in nine countries on April 24.
Apparel retailer Gap fell 3.5 percent after comparable sales in March rose 2 percent, with a 14 percent jump in its Old Navy chain offsetting a 3 percent drop in Banana Republic and a seven percent decline in its namesake stores.
Fidelity Information Services, which sells banking and payment technology and services, fell 4.9 percent as it slashed its full-year revenue growth forecast from 5-7 percent to 1-3 percent due to unexpected foreign exchange movements and higher costs for some projects in Europe.
Software company Citrix Systems fell 3.9 percent as it cut its revenue and profit forecast.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury declined to 1.92 percent from 1.96 percent Thursday, while the 30-year dropped to 2.56 percent from 2.60 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
AFP
