By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks mostly rose Wednesday,
with the Dow industrials up triple digits, after Bloomberg News
reported that 40 Republicans had joined a bipartisan call to break
the budget impasse.
Financial shares rallied, but Apple Inc. weighed on the
technology sector.
The Republicans signed a letter urging the exploration of "all
options" on taxes and entitlement programs. One of the petition
signers, Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho, told Bloomberg:
"It's pretty obvious Obama won the election, and he promised he was
going to raise taxes on the wealthiest."
Simpson, a Republican, said he would be willing to go along with
higher tax rates for married couples earning more $500,000 in
exchange for reforming spending on entitlement programs like
Medicare.
Separately, Texas Representative Kay Granger, also a Republican,
called extending tax cuts for middle-class earnings "the right
thing to do."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 114.95 points, or
0.9%, to 13,066.73, with Travelers Cos. Inc. (TRV) leading gains
after the insurer estimated losses from superstorm Sandy.
The S&P 500 index (SPX) climbed 5.60 points, or 0.4%, to
1,412.65, with utilities the best performing and materials the
greatest laggard of its 10 major sectors.
Leading gains on the S&P 500, Western Digital Corp. (WDC)
shares rose 9% after the hard-disk manufacturer became the latest
company to announce an accelerated dividend.
Citigroup Inc. (C) rallied 6.3% after it announced plans to cut
11,000 jobs, or 4% of its workforce, to reduce costs.
At the opposite end, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
(FCX) shares dropped 14% after the mining company said it would pay
$9 billion in cash and stock to acquire Plains Exploration &
Production Co. (PXP) and McMoRan Exploration Co. (MMR).
Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares declined 4.4%.
The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) fell 11.98 points, or 0.4%, to
2,984.70.
Advancers pulled ahead of decliners on the New York Stock
Exchange, where 370 million shares traded as of 1:30 p.m. Eastern.
Composite volume surpassed 2.4 billion.
U.S. stocks had veered between small gains and losses as Wall
Street continued to ignore reports on the economy while waiting for
resolution to the fiscal cliff.
"It's great that we talk about economic data, except for the
fact that nobody is going to react to it, because we're still stuck
in the fiscal-cliff dungeon," said Art Hogan, market strategist at
Lazard Capital Markets.
"We can only hope and pray that behind the scenes there is more
going on than what we're seeing publicly, because publicly it's a
charade," added Hogan.
The budget saga continued to play out in public on Capitol Hill,
where House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday declared his
willingness to meet with President Barack Obama "at any time" to
resolve the looming fiscal cliff, or billions in spending cuts and
tax hikes scheduled to begin in January.
Also in Washington, Obama on Wednesday addressed the annual
Business Roundtable conference, a group of influential business and
industry leaders, where he made his case for raising taxes on the
top 2% of earners.
The Institute for Supply Management said the U.S. services
sector grew at a slightly faster pace in November, and the Commerce
Department reported factory orders unexpectedly rose 0.8% in
October.
But Wall Street stands to gain should politicians reach a deal
before the end of the year. "The market has ignored enough good
news for the relief rally to be significant," Hogan said.
U.S. stock futures held their gains after the ADP Research
Institute estimated U.S. companies added 118,000 people to their
payrolls in November after a revised 157,000 gain the prior
month.
The market offered little reaction after the Labor Department
reported nonfarm productivity rose 2.9% in the third quarter, its
fastest pace in two years.
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