Wall Street hits
records again, boosted by Trump economy hopes
Wall Street's main stock indexes rose to fresh all-time closing highs as a spike in oil prices supported energy shares and investors renewed their optimism about President Donald Trump's economic agenda.
Wall Street hits records again, boosted by Trump economy hopes
Wall Street's main stock indexes rose to fresh all-time closing highs as a spike in oil prices supported energy shares and investors renewed their optimism about President Donald Trump's economic agenda. 500 tallied its fourth straight session of gains, a day
after Trump vowed a major tax announcement in the next few weeks.500 has surged 8.3 percent since Trump's November 8
election, fuelled by expectations he will lower corporate taxes, reduce
regulations and increase infrastructure spending. The rally had stalled
amid concerns over Trump's protectionist stance and lack of clarity on
policy reforms.
"Investors were worried that the administration may have gotten off
track and was pursuing other items," said Kim Forrest, senior equity
research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.
"Tax cuts have gotten put back on the front burner," Forrest said,
adding, "We are looking for gains in the economy at large from this, not
just (earnings per share) gains in stocks."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 96.97 points, or 0.48 percent, to
end at 20,269.37, the 500 gained 8.23 points, or 0.36 percent,
to 2,316.10 and the Nasdaq Composite added 18.95 points, or 0.33
percent, to 5,734.13.
The S&P and Dow closed at a record high for a second straight
session, while the Nasdaq extended its streak of record closes to a
fourth day.
Energy shares gained 0.8 percent. Oil prices rose more than 1 percent
after reports that OPEC members delivered more than 90 percent of the
output cuts they pledged in a deal that took effect in January.
Energy could continue to be in focus next week, when a host of small-cap
companies in energy are due to report results.
The S&P financial sector ended up 0.2 percent. The group initially
moved higher after Daniel Tarullo, the top Federal Reserve official
charged with financial regulation, said he would resign, creating
further room for Trump to reshape the Fed's policy making staff.
The focus on Washington comes as large US companies were set for their
second straight quarter of profit increases after several periods of
declines.
With more than 70 percent of the S&P 500 having reported results,
fourth-quarter earnings are on track to have climbed 8.4 percent, which
would be the best performance since the third quarter of 2014, according
to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"We are seeing a pretty solid rate of beats and we’re out of the
earnings recession," said Jason Ware, chief investment officer at Albion
Financial Group in Salt Lake City.
Activision Blizzard surged 18.9 percent after the videogame publisher
reported higher-than-expected revenue and set a USD 1 billion share
buyback programme. Its shares gave the biggest boost to the S&P 500
and the Nasdaq.
Skechers USA jumped 19.3 percent after the footwear maker's
fourth-quarter revenue beat expectations.
Sears Holding soared 25.6 percent after the struggling retailer said it
would cut costs by USD 1 billion and reduce debt and pension obligations
by at least USD 1.5 billion this year.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.60-to-1
ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.05-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 48 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 151 new highs and 22 new lows.
About 6.6 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, compared with
the 6.7 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to
Thomson Reuters data.
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