A solid month and quarter for Wall Street as it ended March mixed and awaiting the $US2.3 trillion infrastructure plan from President Joe Biden that promises to deliver huge revenue and earnings opportunities in the years ahead.
The Dow fell 85.41 points, or 0.3%, to end at March at 32,981.55; the S&P 500 rose 14.34 points, or 0.4%, to end at 3,972.89, after touching a new intraday record of 3,994.41.
That was the closest the S&P 500 has come to the 4,000-point mark.
Ad the Nasdaq Composite jumped 201.48 points, or 1.5%, closing at 13,246.87 in what was its strongest daily gain for a while.
For the month, the Dow rose 6.6%, and jumped 7.8% for the quarter. The S&P 500 rose 4.2% in March and 5.8% for the quarter.
The Nasdaq Composite eked out a 0.4% monthly gain and a small 2.8% for the quarter, a victim of the switch to value stocks that seems to be missing the point that megatechs and other tech companies have made money when interest rates have been much higher than this.
Europe’s Stoxx 600 index rose 3.9% in the month for a gain of more than7% for the quarter.
Markets ended the month and quarter awaiting the big infrastructure speech from resident Joe Biden.
Biden’s speech unveiled what he and his administration were calling the first part of a “Build Back Better” plan.
An outline of the proposal released by the White House detailed $US2.3 trillion of spending on infrastructure with a focus on bolstering roads, airports, safe water supplies, greener technology and more.
It would be offset by raising the tax on corporate income from 21% back to 28% after being cut in 2017 by Donald Trump from 35% to 21%. Trump failed to fund the cut and allowed other tax rorts for corporates and big investors to remain, blowing out the US deficit.
News reports said the size of the Biden plan could further rise to $4 trillion as additional parts are announced, offset by increases in tax rates on the wealthy and investors.
Biden’s infrastructure plan comes less than a month after Congress passed a $US1.9 trillion package of COVID relief spending.
The fiscal stimulus has boosted inflation expectations, which have been blamed for a bond-market selloff in the US and globally that has sent the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up about 84 basis points for the quarter to a high above 1.77%.
That saw the biggest quarterly gain since December 2016 quarter in the wake of Donald Trump’s shock election as US President.
US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.3% on the final day of the month and quarter to end at $59.16 in New York.
That was a dip of around 2.7% for March, but it remains 22% higher for the quarter.
Brent crude fell on the day to $US62.74, a drop of around 1.4%. That left it down 1.6% for the month but 23% higher for the first quarter.
Comex gold prices jumped 1.8% to settle at $US1,713.80 an ounce but suffered a 9.5% slide for the quarter, the biggest drop in four years. Gold was down marginally for the month.
Comex copper closed just under $US3.99 a pound on Wednesday – a loss of around 3% for the month. But it is still up 13% year to date (ie the first quarter).
