(Reuters) - U.S. stocks posted slight gains on Friday as a rise in healthcare shares ahead of President Donald Trump’s speech on drug pricing more than made up for losses in Symantec and Nvidia.
The president is expected to renew his focus on controlling prescription drug prices in a highly anticipated speech at 2:00 p.m. ET.
“It’s relatively quiet in terms of drivers today. Trump’s speech really hasn’t had much of an impact on pharma or biotech thus far,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR in Boston.
“Three of the four drivers that we had yesterday are still with us, benign 10-year (Treasury yields), oil and dollar, and technically breaking above the 100-day and 50-day on S&P was significant.”
The S&P healthcare index .SPXHC rose 0.8 percent, providing the biggest boost to the S&P 500.
Trump is also set to meet the heads of 10 major automakers, including those from General Motors (GM.N), Ford (F.N) and Fiat Chrysler (FCAU.N), at the White House to discuss the fate of landmark fuel efficiency standards and a looming confrontation with California and other major states.
The S&P 500 .SPX reclaimed its 100-day moving average on Thursday, suggesting to some traders that the market may move higher. A day earlier it had topped its 50-day moving average, an indicator of short-term momentum.
At 9:53 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 78.50 points, or 0.32 percent, at 24,818.03, the S&P 500 .SPX was up 3.01 points, or 0.11 percent, at 2,726.08 and
