Wall Street hits record high on Trump tax talk

US stocks hit record highs shortly after the open on Friday, a day after President Donald Trump said he would release a major tax reform plan in the coming weeks.

Trump’s promise of a “phenomenal” tax plan helped reignite a post-election rally, which had stalled in recent weeks on concerns over his protectionist stand and the lack of clarity on his policies.

The biggest theme for investors is that Trump’s tax plan will move quickly and he has always maintained that it is going to be very aggressive, said Uriel Cohen, founder of Alpine Global in New York.

“No one wants to miss a large pop when that news does come out.”

Jeb Hensarling, the Republican chairman of a key House of Representatives committee, laid out his plan to roll back Wall Street and consumer protection rules, which were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, according to a staff memo seen by Reuters on Thursday.

Banks, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JPMorgan, were slightly higher. The S&P 500 financial index rose 0.31 per cent, giving the broader index its biggest boost.

Goldman Sachs rose 0.78 per cent and was the top stock on the Dow.

The dollar index was up 0.3 per cent to a three-week high of 101.01. Gold was down 0.3 per cent.

Oil prices rose 1.5 per cent after news that Opec members’ initial compliance with last year’s production cut deal reached a record high.

At 9:38 a.m. ET (1438 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 55.34 points, or 0.27 per cent, at 20,227.74.

The S&P 500 was up 4.65 points, or 0.20 per cent, at 2,312.52 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 10.07 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 5,725.25.

Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were higher, with energy’s 1 per cent rise leading the gainers.

Activision Blizzard surged 13.7 per cent and gave Wall Street the biggest boost to the S&P 500. The videogame maker reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and a $1 billion share buyback program.

Sears Holding jumped 31 per cent to $7.27 after the struggling retailer said it would cut debt and pension obligations by at least $1.5 billion this year.

Mead Johnson was up 4.7 per cent after Reckitt Benckiser finalised a $16.6 billion deal to buy the infant formula maker.

Skechers USA was up 17.8 per cent after its fourth-quarter revenue beat expectations.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,770 to 837. On the Nasdaq, 1,396 issues rose and 859 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 25 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 75 new highs and nine new lows.

100,000 visas revoked under Donald Trump’s travel ban

Over 100,000 visas have been revoked since US President Donald Trump’s temporary travel ban a week ago, media reports said.

According to the Washington Post on on Friday, the attorney revealed the data during a hearing in a lawsuit filed on behalf of two Yemeni brothers who arrived last Saturday at an Dulles airport near Washington D.C. but were sent back to Ethiopia due to the controversial order issued.

“The number 100,000 sucked the air out of my lungs,” Xinhua news agency quoted Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg of the Legal Aid Justice Center, who represents the brothers.

For people like the Yemeni brothers, the US administration appears to be attempting a case-by-case reprieve. They and other plaintiffs in lawsuits around the US are being offered new visas and the Donald Trump opportunity to come to the US in exchange for dropping their suits.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer, when asked about the case during his daily briefing, said he had no information about it.

The White House has downplayed the order’s effects on people in transit after chaos and protests erupted at airports around the country last Friday.

Under the executive order Trump signed on January 27, refugees from all over the world will be suspended US entry for 120 days while all immigration from so-called “countries with terrorism concerns” will be suspended for 90 days.

Countries included in the ban are Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

Last Sunday, thousands of protesters rallied before the White House, at more than 30 US airports and in big cities including Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago.

‘Angel’ singer Taher Shah has a Valentine’s Day ‘gift’ for you

Call it good news or bad, Taher Shah is coming up with a special gift for you!

After taking the world on a stir with ‘Eye to Eye’ and ‘Angel’, Taher is back with a Valentine’s Day ‘gift’ for his fans.

The Pakistani singer, known for making unique and absurd music, recently announced on Twitter that he will release a song this Valentine’s Season.

“Valentine’s Day gift of honor coming soon for Valentine’s Day worldwide angelic fans. Stay tuned,” the tweet said.

Shah shot to fame with his first song, ‘Eye to Eye’ that quickly became an internet sensation and attracted a lot of attention, followed by his second song, ‘Angel’ (2016) that (surprisingly) also won an award in the US.

Later in December, Shah left Pakistan after receiving death threats from people not known to him.

Trump questions University of California’s funding after protests

The US President raised questions about whether the University of California should continue receiving federal funds after demonstrators at the Berkeley campus forced the cancellation of a speech by Trump supporter Milo Yiannopoulos.

“If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” Donald Trump said in a Twitter post on Thursday.

The 33-year-old Yannopoulos is a vocal far-right supporter of Trump and self-proclaimed Internet troll. His comments have been criticized as racist, misogynist, anti-Muslim and white supremacist.

He was forced to cancel a speech on Wednesday at UC-Berkeley when protests against his appearance turned violent.

Writing on his Facebook page, Yiannopoulos said he had been evacuated from the Berkeley campus when “violent leftist demonstrators” put up barricades, set fires University of California and threw rocks and fireworks at the building’s windows.

Hundreds of protesters gathered on Wednesday afternoon at Berkeley and some of them clashed with police.

Once Yiannopoulos’s speech was cancelled, the gathering turned into a celebration with music and dancing as police looked on.

Yiannopoulos, a controversial British writer, works as an editor for Breitbart News, a media outlet run until last August by Steve Bannon, who is now the chief strategist for Trump at the White House.