Wall Street edges up to fresh record highs on upbeat data

• Financial shares lead rally fueled by rising T-bond yields.
• All 11 major S&P 500 sectors post gains on Friday.
• Housing Starts in US rose to highest level in 13 years in December.

Wall Street's main indexes opened the last day of the week at fresh all-time highs supported by upbeat macroeconomic data releases from the US and strong earnings figures. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.12% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were adding 0.2% and 0.15% respectively.

Among the 11-major S&P 500 sectors, which were all in the positive territory after the opening bell, the Financials Index is up 0.4% to lead the rally. A more-than-1% increase seen in the 10-year US Treasury bond yield seems to be helping financial shares find demand.

Earlier in the day, the data published by the US Census Bureau showed that Housing Starts in December rose by an impressive 16.9% to reach its highest level in 13 years at 1,608,000. Additionally, manufacturing output expanded by 0.2% despite a 0.3% decline in Industrial Production.