Tag: dow
Wall Street Parties Like It’s 19,999

Wall Street Parties Like It’s 19,999

(Reuters) – The Dow came within one point of 20,000 for the first time on Friday and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reached record highs, boosted by Apple, extending a two-month rally fueled by optimism about U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Apple climbed 1.1 percent after Canada’s Competition Bureau did not find sufficient evidence the iPhone maker had engaged in anti-competitive conduct, closing a two-year investigation into the company.

Wall Street has been on a tear since Trump won the U.S. election in November, with the Dow up 9 percent as investors bet he will stimulate the economy with lower taxes and infrastructure spending. While Friday’s gains suggested the rally was not yet over, some investors have grown cautious.

“The market’s advance is understandable because of the economic stimulus optimism associated with a new Trump presidency,” said CFRA chief investment strategist Sam Stovall. “But parabolic market advances traditionally experience digestion of these gains, and I don’t think this time will be any different.”

The record trading session followed a U.S. Labor Department report that showed the economy added fewer-than-expected jobs last month but wages increased, suggesting resilience in the labor market.

Stocks did not react significantly to a report that five people were dead in a shooting at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale airport.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 64.51 points, or 0.32 percent, to end at 19,963.8 points. The index rose as high as 19,999.63 but lost ground. Goldman Sachs rose 1.48 percent, helping the Dow more than any other stock.

The S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 7.98 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,276.98, its highest close ever. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 33.12 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,521.06, also a record.

Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose, led by the technology sector’s <.SPLRCT> 0.96 percent gain.

For the week, the Dow rose 1 percent while the S&P gained 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 2.6 percent.

INVESTORS EYE EARNINGS

The strength of fourth-quarter earnings reports from U.S. companies over the next few weeks will be closely watched by investors eyeing high stock valuations.

Following its recent gains, the S&P 500 is trading at about 17 times expected earnings, pricey compared to its 10-year average of 14, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.

Analysts on average expect fourth-quarter earnings to rise 6.1 percent compared to a year before, when slumping oil prices crippled energy companies, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

During the session, Amgen rose 2.48 percent after a U.S. district judge blocked Sanofi and Regeneron from selling their cholesterol drug, which Amgen said infringed its patents. Regeneron fell 5.84 percent and was the biggest percentage loser on the S&P 500.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.11-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.21-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 24 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 76 new highs and 15 new lows.

About 6.4 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, a bit under the 6.7 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

(Addtional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Meredith Mazzilli)

IMAGE: The value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is shown above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as it nears 20,000 in New York, U.S., January 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Dow Plunges While The One Sector Of Economy Where Government Intervened Reaps Profits

Stocks dropped sharply Thursday over persistent fears about debt troubles in Spain and Italy and the American economy straddling the line of recession, but one bright spot was the sector Republicans slammed as dead in 2008 and that government took an active role in rescuing: cars.

General Motors indicated its second-quarter profits nearly doubled, thanks largely to increasing prices (and consumers being willing to pay them):

Second-quarter revenue rose 19 percent to $39.4 billion, while sales rose 7 percent. Although sales softened somewhat in the U.S. and Europe because of buyers’ worries about the economy, GM gained market share in every region outside South America.

It was the first time since GM emerged from bankruptcy protection two years ago that all of its regions were profitable. Europe, which is undergoing a restructuring, posted a profit of $100 million, versus a loss a year earlier. In North America, where the bulk of GM’s profits come from, the company earned $2.2 billion, up from $1.6 billion.

GM won more customers in the U.S. thanks to the Cruze, which was the best-selling car in America in June. The Cruze also sold well in China, where Chevrolet’s June sales rose 34 percent.

This is not to say the auto industry’s troubles are behind it so much as financial and business interests at large are nosediving at the same time a once-mocked sector of America’s economy — derided as a dinosaur that had no means of righting itself — is hinting at a major recovery.