A record day on Wall Street with the Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500 hit new record highs.
Markets shrugged off the continuing tensions in Ukraine in the wake of Sunday’s illegal vote in the eastern, Russian dominated part of the country.
It might mean a better start to trading here today, but for US investors, Wall Street has had its best day in a month as a combination of investor short covering of tech stocks of all kinds helped drive markets higher.
That short covering saw the Nasdaq soar by 1.77%. That in turn helped the S&P 500 to rise 1% and the Dow was up 0.6%.
The Dow ended at near record highs on 16,695.47, the S&P 500 closed at 1,896.65, up 18.17 points.
The index closed at its record level for the ninth time this year.
The enthusiasm of investors spread to the previously weak small cap sector. The Russell 2000 index, which is the main measure of the sector, jumped 26.43 points, or 2.4%, to 1,133.65 by the end of trading.
But it was widespread short covering by investors who had shorted the big name momentum tech stocks, who drove the US market higher.
The Nasdaq is where the pain has been hardest felt and it had its best day’s trading in three months.
The tech index added 72 points, or 1.77% to 4,143.86, led by gains in those momentum names. (Facebook, etc).
The solid day on Wall Street followed a similar day in Europe, where investors are increasingly eager. Even the Russian market rose, ending 0.3% higher after early losses.
Asian markets though were more mixed – while the Shanghai market rose 2.1%, the Japanese and Australian markets both finished in the red.
Oil and gold prices rose 0.6% in New York and the latter ended at $US1,296 in early Asian trading this morning.
Oil regained the $US100 a barrel mark in New York.
The Aussie dollar remained around 93.60 US cents in early Asian trading this morning.
But for us, today will start with a reasonable gain of 30 points, if the share price futures contract overnight is any guide.
That will mean a much stronger start than yesterday, compared to the caution seen in much of yesterday’s trading
In Australia, the local market ended lower after an early gain.
The ASX 200 Index and the All Ordinaries Index each fell by 0.2%, to 5448.4 and 5429 respectively, with the resources sector suffering the biggest falls amid a weaker outlook for iron ore prices.
Resources giant BHP Billiton lost 0.5% to $37.16, while Rio Tinto edged up 0.1% to $61.
Steelmaker and iron ore exporter, Arrium was the worst-performing stock in the ASX 200, dropping 4.1% to a nine month low of $1.06.
The big four banks were all lower.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 0.2% to $79.38 and National Australia Bank lost 0.6% to $34.18.
The ANZ and Westpac, each slipped 0.1% to $32.68 and $34.90 respectively.
The CBA updates the market on its third quarter performance before trading starts tomorrow.
