A fresh round of strong quarterly earnings releases lifted US equity markets to two month highs ahead of President Trump's delayed State of the Union address (AT 1PM AEDT) - Dow up +172-points or 0.68% Goldman Sachs Group Inc (up +0.15%) plans to chop its commodities business after a months-long review showed the business was using too much capital for too little profit, according to the Wall Street Journal. ExxonMobil Inc (%) and Qatar Petroleum announced Tuesday that they will go ahead with a $10 billion project to export liquefied natural gas from a plant on the Texas Gulf Coast.The broader S&P500 +0.47% to log its fifth consecutive rise, with Consumer Discretionary (up +0.96%), Communication Services (+0.91%) and Information Technology (+0.88%) leading eight of the eleven primary sectors higher. The technology-centric NASDAQ rose +0.74% (at 7,402.08), inching toward 7,431.50, which would officially mark its exit from a bear market.
