The Dow kicks off the new year with a record high
US stocks kicked the new decade off with fresh all-time highs.
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all reached record highs on Thursday. Happy New Year, Wall Street!
Equities added onto their 2019 gains, which led the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to their best performances since 2013.
The Dow finished up a whopping 330 points, or 1.2%, while the S&P 500 climbed 0.8%. The Nasdaq ended 1.3% higher. It was a new all-time closing high for all three indexes, which surpassed last week’s records.
Apple stock closed at an all time high, above $300 a share, just one year after CEO Tim Cook shocked investors with his warning about sales in China.
But it wasn’t just US markets that fared well on the first trading day of the year. Global stocks climbed higher Thursday after China’s central bank moved to stimulate the economy.
Economists view China as the growth engine for the world economy, so a central bank committed to keeping this engine going would be helpful to markets.
American and Chinese officials are set to sign their “phase one” trade deal on January 15 in Washington. This good news has already been priced into the market. But stocks will be exposed to trade-related headline risk again as the two largest economies in the world embark on negotiating “phase two”.
