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WALL STREET INDEXES RISE WITH TECH IN LEAD, HEALTHCARE FALLS MOST

The three major U.S. equity indexes are advancing early on Thursday with technology leading gains, thanks to a bullish earnings report.

On the earnings front, the last of the biggest U.S. banks reported. Morgan Stanley's MS.N shares are rising 4.4% after it reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts' expectations, fueled by a 47% jump in investment banking revenue as dealmaking surged and debt underwriting fees nearly doubled.

Goldman Sachs' GS.N shares are up 2.8% after its fourth-quarter profit beat Wall Street expectations as it benefited from a surge in dealmaking and stronger trading revenues in a turbulent market.

Elsewhere, the S&P 500 technology sector .SPLRCT is outperforming, up 1.5% after TSMC 2330.TW, the world's main producer of advanced AI chips, reported a forecast-smashing 35% jump in its fourth-quarter profit, and predicted robust annual growth. The company also flagged more U.S. manufacturing capacity was in the works.

The report is helping to boost the chip sector, pushing the Philadelphia semiconductor index .SOX up 3.4%.

Healthcare .SPXHC, off more than 1%, is the biggest laggard among the S&P 500's 11 major sectors with its biggest decline coming from Boston Scientific BSX.N, down ~5%, after the company said it would buy medtech firm Penumbra PEN.N in a deal valued at about $14.5 billion to expand its portfolio of cardiovascular devices, in the largest acquisition by the Massachusetts-based company in two decades.

The energy sector .SPNY, down 0.6%, is the second weakest group as oil prices tumble more than 4% after U.S. President Donald Trump said that the killings of demonstrators during protests in Iran were ending, easing concerns over military action against Iran and potential oil supply disruptions.

As for the U.S. economy, the Labor Department reported weekly jobless claims of 198,000 in the week ended January 5, down 9,000 from the week before and below economists' estimates of 215,000.

The January Philly Fed business index came in at +12.6 vs. a -1.0 estimate.

Here is your early snapshot around 10.16 a.m ET/1516 GMT:

(Sinéad Carew)

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