Wall Street rose Tuesday with the Dow making history by cracking the 30,000 point mark for the first time.
By the close, the 30 stock measure had remained well over a level once considered a dream and consolidating the more than 400 point gain for the session.
The Dow rose 454.97 points, or 1.54%, to 30,046.24, a record close; the S&P 500 gained 57.82 points, or 1.62%, at 3,635.41 and the Nasdaq closed up 156.15 points, or 1.31%, at 12,036.79.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended within sight of their all-time highs and should sweep past them in the next few days if the sentiment of Monday and Tuesday remains as upbeat as it has been.
Investors’ preference now seems more evenly balanced between value stocks and techs of all sizes as the outlook for 2021 seems to be brightening.
Tesla, the electric car and battery maker, stood out. Its shares jumped more than 6%, pushing the market value past half a trillion dollars as investors positioned themselves for its move into the S&P 500 from the end of the year.
Each of the 11 major S&P sectors was higher, led by economically sensitive stocks such as industrials, which climbed to a record, along with the financials, up 2.8% and energy, up 4.2%.
The Aussie market will be looking for a solid start later today with the overnight futures market up 46 points at 8 am. After Tuesday’s 82 point gain the ASX 200 is firmly on track for its best November in a quarter of a century.
Strong rises for oil prices will see the local energy sector again boosted today (as it was on Tuesday) but gold miners will take another battering today on the plunge in prices to just above $US1,800 an ounce and tottering.
The Aussie dollar rose past 73.50 US cents, a level that will again worry the Reserve Bank and local exporters.
The drivers of the historic 30,000 point scaling of the Dow were investors upbeat about a 2021 economic recovery in the US on confidence that coronavirus vaccines and the President-elect Joe Biden would make a world of difference.
The start of the formal transition process was also a signal to investors still nervous that President Trump might still be deluded enough to try and resist a Biden Presidency by hanging on in the White house.
The slump in gold prices tells us investors are no longer as worried about a recalcitrant Trump as they were a week ago.
Helping from the sidelines was a surge in oil prices to 8-month highs, gold though slumped to just above $US1,800 an ounce and will go under that support level in the next day or so as risk on is decidedly, on.
A big factor was the transition process to a Biden administration getting underway with a tardy approval given by the Trump administration for funds and aid to start the move.
Biden reassured markets by confirming that former Fed chair, Janet Yellen (and White House economic adviser) would be nominated as Treasury Secretary.
She is by far the best credentialed of recent Treasury Secretaries and investors took the news as positive confirmation that Biden will be good for the markets in coming years.
That added to this month’s surge that has put the S&P 500 index, the most important of the three Wall Street market measures, on track for its best November ever.
