Wall St. opens 2017 with big gains as banks surge

After coming within a hair's breadth of the milestone in December as part of a post-election rally, the Dow was trading just 0.46 percent shy of the psychological milestone. The Dow rose 13.4 percent in 2016 - its best performance in three years - registering strong gains in the past two months as investors bet that Presidential-elect Donald Trump would introduce market friendly policies such as tax cuts and simpler regulation. Banks were the main drivers of the gains on Wall Street on Tuesday,