NEW YORK (AA) - Wall Street opened higher Friday as major American banks' earnings beat market estimates and their stock value increased.
The Dow added 36 points to begin the last trading day of the week at 19,927.
The S&P 500 rose four points to 2,275. The Nasdaq rose 16 points to open at 5,564.
The 2016 fourth quarter earnings season kicked off earlier Friday as banking giants JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo released their quarterly earnings.
Their net income and revenues came higher than market expectations, pushing their share prices higher.
At the first bell, JP Morgan Chase saw its shares rise 1.6 percent and Bank of America stock climbed 1.7 percent. Wells Fargo's stock value increased 2.4 percent.