Wall Street ends at fresh records on hopes for tax cut

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) – U.S. stocks ended at record highs Friday after the Senate passed a budget resolution that could pave the way for tax cut legislation.

The Senate voted Thursday to pass a fiscal 2018 budget resolution, with President Donald Trump indicating his approval on Twitter.

“The Budget passed late last night, 51 to 49. We got ZERO Democrat votes with only Rand Paul (he will vote for Tax Cuts) voting against.This now allows for the passage of large scale Tax Cuts (and Reform), which will be the biggest in the history of our country!

Retail sector gains also aided the rise.

Retail giants Macy's and Target jumped 4.8 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.

The Dow Jones rose 165 points to finish the last trading day of the week at 23,328.

The S&P 500 gained 13 points to end the day at 2,575, and the Nasdaq added 23 points to close at 6,629.

The Dow and the S&P gained 2 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, for the week. Each index closed with gains for the sixth consecutive week.

The Nasdaq increased 0.4 percent this week -- the fourth week in a row it has posted a weekly gain.