NEW YORK, May 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday, as Wall Street believed that market concerns on President Donald Trump's ability might have been exaggerated.
U.S. equities suffered their worst day so far this year on Wednesday, with all three major indices dropping over 1.5 percent, due to the latest turmoil in Washington that triggered market concerns on whether the Trump administration could continue to push its economic reform agenda.
The White House earlier this week pushed back against a new wave of media allegations that Trump might have tried to obstruct justice by asking then FBI Director James Comey to end a probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
"I hope you can let this go," Trump told Comey at the time, according to a New York Times report, quoting two people who read the memo Comey wrote shortly after meeting with Trump in the Oval Office one day after Flynn resigned over a Russia-related scandal in February.
"The market is responding to the probability that tax reform, infrastructure spending, healthcare reform and trade deals might not occur," Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer of Krane Funds Advisors, told Xinhua.
Even though investors were shocked by the news, analysts said uncertainty in Washington is unlikely to derail the stock rally in the long run. U.S. stocks rebounded on Thursday, as Wall Street tried to recover from Wednesday's selloff, the biggest one of 2017.
Meanwhile, investors shifted their focus to the next move of the U.S. Federal Reserve, whose policymakers are slated to meet next month.
St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said recent economic data has been weak and the Federal Open Market Committee's projected path for raising interest rates may be too steep, according to Bloomberg.
Market expectations for a June rate hike were 78.5 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
Shortly after Friday's opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 44.24 points, or 0.21 percent, to 20,707.26. The S&P 500 rose 8.12 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2,373.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 28.81 points, or 0.48 percent, to 6,083.94. Enditem
