NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Wednesday morning and some of the largest gains are going to consumer-focused companies. Auto makers General Motors and Ford are jumping as car companies start to report their December sales, and vehicle suppliers are also trading higher. Retailers are rising as the market builds on its gains from the day before.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average added 29 points, or 0.2 percent, to 19,910 as of 11 a.m. Eastern time. The blue-chip index is being held back by small losses for health insurer UnitedHealth and energy giant Exxon Mobil.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index jumped 9 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,267. The Nasdaq composite rose 33 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,461. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks outpaced the other indexes and advanced 14 points, or 1 percent, to 1,379.
DRIVE MY CAR: Automakers are reporting their December sales on Wednesday. General Motors said its total sales climbed 10 percent from a year ago as Chevy sales increased, and its stock rose $1.666, or 4.7 percent, to $36.81. Ford climbed 57 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $13.16. Electric car maker Tesla Motors, which gave its own report late Tuesday, picked up $8.02, or 3.7 percent, to $225.01. Auto supplier Delphi Automotive gained $1.88, or 2.8 percent, to $69.42 and used car retailer CarMax also climbed $2.51, or 3.9 percent, to $67.33. Fiat Chrysler, which rose Tuesday, missed out on the gains and was little changed.
RETAIL RISING: Retailers also jumped after the opening bell. Gap rose $1.04, or 4.4 percent, to $24.52 and office supply company Staples gained 31 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $9.20. Discount retailer Dollar Tree added $2.22, or 2.9 percent, to $79.67.
EAT UP: Shake Shack rose $2.59, or 7.2 percent, to $38.72. The company will be added to the S&P SmallCap 600 index after the close of trading Wednesday. When a company is added to a major stock index it typically trades higher as it's added to various portfolios. The burger chain will replace Chemours, a former unit of DuPont, which will become part of the S&P 500.
OUT OF UNIFORM: Uniform provider UniFirst skidded $8.30, or 5.7 percent, to $136.70. The company had a weak first quarter and lowered its projections for the rest of the year. UniFirst said it lost customers in the North American energy market and demand was down. Energy companies have slashed thousands of jobs in after a slump in oil prices that lasted from mid-2014 to early last year.
MATERIAL WORLD: Freeport-McMoRan climbed 33 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $14.11 as copper prices increased. Other materials makers including chemicals maker LyondellBassell Industries and fertilizer maker Mosaic also rose. LyondellBassell added $1.18, or 1.4 percent, to $88.06 and Mosaic picked up 73 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $30.26.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude picked up 29 cents to $52.62 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 32 cents to $55.79 a barrel in London. However energy companies took modest losses, and Hess gave up $1.46, or 2.3 percent, to $61.36. The price of natural gas fell 1.4 percent after an 11-percent plunge Tuesday.
CURRENCIES: The dollar slipped to 117.27 yen from 117.68 yen. The euro edged up to $1.0464 from $1.0410.
BONDS: Bond prices dipped. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.46 percent at 2.45 percent.
OVERSEAS: France's CAC 40 lost 0.3 percent and in Germany the DAX was 0.3 percent lower. The FTSE 100 of Britain was little changed. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 2.5 percent in its first trading day of 2017. That was partly because the weak yen will help Japanese exporters like Honda. South Korea's Kospi gained nearly 0.1 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.1 percent.
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AP Markets Writer Marley Jay can be reached at http://twitter.com/MarleyJayAP His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/marley-jay
