NEW YORK: The S&P and the Dow hit record levels in early afternoon trading on Tuesday as Boeing rose and bank stocks gained ahead of a near certain move by the Federal Reserve to raise interest rate.

Goldman Sachs rose 2.4 percent and JPMorgan and Bank of America gained about 1 percent. The stocks lifted the S&P financial index by 0.9 percent.

Boeing rose as much as 3.4 percent to $292.8 after the company said it would raise its quarterly dividend by 20 percent and replace its existing share buyback program with a new $18 billion authorization.

At 12:41 p.m. ET (1741 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was up 139.7 points, or 0.57 percent, at 24,525.73, the S&P 500 was up 7.55 points, or 0.28 percent, at 2,667.54 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.62 points, or 0.02 percent, at 6,876.70. Losses in technology heavyweights, including Apple and Facebook, dragged on the Nasdaq.

“You’re going to see rotation when you go into the end of the year. Some of the profits were taken off the table for big winners such as technology and into sectors that have not done as well, such as finance and energy,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.

The Fed is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate for third time this year at the end of the meeting on Wednesday. Traders see an 87.6 percent chance of a 25 basis point rate hike, according to the CME Group’s Fedwatch tool.—Reuters