U.S. stock markets are now hitting all-time highs on a daily basis. Stocks have mostly rallied since last year’s election, with a booming U.S. economy, supportive monetary policy and robust corporate earnings being the key triggers. Expectations that the Trump administration’s proposed tax and regulatory reforms will help companies’ and consumers, have given investors further reasons to put their money in stocks.
Continuing their seemingly unstoppable march, all three major indexes crept further into record territories Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average inched up more than 6 points heading into the close, to 23,563.36, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite eked out a gain of 0.3%, to 6,789.12. Not to be left behind, the S&P 500 advanced 0.1%, to an all-time closing high of 2,594.38.
As a matter of fact, yesterday’s settlements marked Dow’s 59th closing record this year, the Nasdaq’s 64th, and the S&P 500’s 53rd. The session also marked the 27th time in 2017 all three benchmarks hit closing records on the same day.
What’s Sending Indexes to a String of Records?
It’s fairly simple — investors have driven up equities on evidence of economic growth.
As per the Commerce Department’s first estimate, the U.S. economy expanded at a 3% pace in the third quarter. This represents a marginal decline from the annualized growth rate of 3.1% in the April to June period, the strongest performance since the first quarter of 2015. Moreover, the latest figure represents the best back-to-back quarters of at least 3% growth since 2014.
Further, the October payroll report showed that the domestic labor market bounced back from the effects of hurricanes, while jobless rate ticked down to a 17-year low of 4.1%. A positive read on orders for U.S. durable goods also point to a strengthening economy. Investors should also know that the Consumer Confidence Index rose to 125.9 in October – the most since December 2000.
