The Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq — and the elusive 1 percent move

Friday, 24 Feb 2017

The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq continue to be without a 1 percent move all year.

The last time each index moved 1 percent — in either direction — was on Dec. 7.

This streak will reach 53 sessions for all three indices if markets don't see a 1 percent move on Friday. That is notable, considering the Dow will surpass its 52-session record that ran from May to July 2014.

The Dow is now on track for its longest streak without a 1 percent move since a 60-session record 10 years ago, which spanned from November 2006 to February 2007.

The S&P 500 continues to have its longest streak without a 1 percent move since a 62-session streak from April to July 2014, and the Nasdaq since a 73-session streak from June to October 1989.

Nasdaq Composite Crosses 6000 for First Time

U.S. stocks open higher, following global trend after the first round of the French presidential election

April 25, 2017

The Nasdaq Co mposite jumped past 6000 for the first time Tuesday as a series of upbeat earnings reports lifted stocks.




The tech-heavy index added 0.4% shortly after the opening bell. The S&P 500 added 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 151 points, or 0.7%, to 20915.

Major stock indexes have rebounded in recent sessions as corporate earnings have showed sustained strength among U.S. companies. S&P 500 firms have reported better-than-expected quarterly results, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said this week, with the share of companies beating analysts’ estimates for both per-share earnings and sales rising to its highest level since 2012.

Shares of Dow component Caterpillar climbed 6% after the machinery company boosted its forecasts for the year. McDonald’s shares added 2.6% after the company reported a rise in same-store sales.

An easing up of political uncertainty has also helped lift stocks around the world, analysts said. U.S. stocks notched their biggest gains since March 1 on Monday after a centrist candidate won the first round of France’s presidential election and President Donald Trump ordered White House aides to draft a tax plan that slashes the corporate tax rate to 15%, according to people familiar with the directive. Hopes for tax cuts had helped stocks surge after the U.S. election.

Elsewhere, European stocks extended gains from Monday, with the Stoxx Europe 600 rising 0.4%. Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the first round of France’s presidential election helped defuse concerns that France could elect a euroskeptic candidate and ultimately pull out of the euro, investors and analysts said.

Haven assets retreated. Gold fell 0.7% to $1,269 an ounce Tuesday after its worst day in seven weeks. Government bonds fell, with the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rising to 2.304%, according to Tradeweb, from 2.275% Monday. Yields rise as bond prices fall.

Earlier, Asian stocks extended gains, with Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rising 1.1%. South Korea’s Kospi added 1.1%, rising to its highest level since 2011, as consumer confidence increased the most in nearly four years after the removal of President Park Geun-hye. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 1.3%, while markets in Australia were closed for a holiday.

The prices of several big-name Nasdaq-listed stocks appeared on some websites to either spike or plummet well after the closing bell on Monday, seemingly due to a glitch related to the market data that runs the largely automated markets.

At around 6:30 p.m., the prices of Amazon Inc and Microsoft Corp stocks appeared to have lost more than half their value, while Apple Inc shares appeared to more than double. Google parent Alphabet Inc and eBay Inc shares were among others that all appeared to be priced at $123.47 on some financial news websites on Monday evening.

The actual prices of the stocks were not affected and no trades were completed at that price, a Nasdaq spokesman confirmed.

Nasdaq said in a statement it was investigating the improper use of test data distributed by third parties. Prices on Nasdaq's website were not affected.

Nasdaq and other U.S. stock exchanges closed early on Monday ahead of the U.S. Independence Day holiday on Tuesday.

Testing of stock exchange software is mandated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and happens on a regular basis to help prevent electronic glitches, often using test symbols and historical data.

This bull market needs to go up just a bit more to be the 'GOAT’

• The S&P 500 needs to go up just 6.4 percent from its current level for this bull market to become the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.), according to Leuthold Group, a firm long known for its market stat crunching on Wall Street.
• Leuthold's Doug Ramsey said in a note to clients that he thinks this bull market can surpass the one from the 1990s.
• "It's already been a good year for G.O.A.T.'s, with Tom Brady, Roger Federer, and Floyd Mayweather all cementing their claims. With the S&P 500 less than 7% away, why not?," he writes.
• The current bull market became the second best of all time earlier this year.

Dow Industrials Cross 23000 for First Time

Strong earnings from UnitedHealth help propel the blue-chip index

Oct. 17, 2017

The Dow Jones Industrial Average crept above 23000 for the first time Tuesday, buoyed by gains in shares of health-care companies.

The blue-chip index crossed the milestone in intraday trading before paring gains. The index was recently up 40 points, or 0.2%, to 22997.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Co mposite added less than 0.1%.

Corporate earnings have helped boost major stock indexes to fresh highs in 2017, and the third quarter is on track to provide more fuel to the market’s rise, analysts say. At the end of last month, analysts expected earnings at S&P 500 companies to rise 4.2%, according to FactSet.

Earnings aren’t the only driver of major indexes in 2017. Market optimism is also pushing stocks higher, thanks to solid economic growth across the globe, analysts say. Though some investors worry stocks are trading at prices that are high compared with the earnings generated by companies, others are willing to brush off these valuation concerns because of this positive global growth.

Moving forward, some money managers say what will be key for the stock rally is how fast central banks in the developed world will tighten policy, since higher interest rates tend to make stocks less attractive compared with bonds.

The European Central Bank is expected to give further clues next week about how it plans to slow its monthly asset purchases. Knowing when the bond buying will come to an end is key because it will set the stage for the ECB to start nudging up rates for the first time since 2011, analysts said.

Dow futures fall 100 points as stocks look to pull back from record highs

• The Dow is coming off a record session, closing above 23,000 for the first time on Wednesday.
• The pullback in the futures market took place exactly 30 years after "Black Monday," the worst day in the history of the U.S. stock market.
• On that day, the S&P 500 plunged 20.5 percent.