US stock market opens higher, indexes near record

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stock market opened with gains on Friday as two major indexes hovered around their record high levels.

The Dow Jones was up 145 points, or 0.4%, to 34,342 at 9.42 a.m. EDT (1342GMT).

The S&P 500 rose 8 points, or 0.2%, to 4,275 and the Nasdaq increased 30 points to 14,400. Both indexes hit their all-time highs on Thursday.

Technology and pharmaceutical companies' shares were on the rise with Tesla adding 1.3% and Netflix gained 2.1%. Moderna and Novavax rose 1.9% and 3.7%, respectively.

The dollar index was down 0.2% to 91.61 shortly after the first bell. The VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, was also down 1% to 15.80.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury was slightly up by 0.2% to 1.490%.

Precious metals have continued their increase as gold was up 0.8% to $1,789 per ounce and silver added 1.1% to $26.22.