Wall Street builds on yesterday's gains, Nasdaq hits record high
Fueled by strong earning, the three major equity indexes in the U.S. added to yesterday's strong earning on Tuesday. Led by gains in Apple and Microsoft, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ruptured the 6K mark for the first time and hit a record high at 6,036.02
Corporate giants, including Caterpillar, McDonald's, and Lockheed Martin, all reported better than estimated earnings for the first quarter of 2017 and pushed the stock indexes higher. Peter Kenny, a senior market strategist at Global Markets Advisory Group in New York, told Reuters that the latest reports from Dow companies suggest that U.S. corporate profitability is on track to provide some significant year-over-year earnings growth.
- US: Q1 earnings mostly above expectations
The stocks may have also received some additional boost from a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, which suggested that Trump's tax proposal would include a cut to 15% from 39.6% on many owner-operated companies.
At the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 252.45 points, or 1.22%, at 21,016.34, the S&P 500 added 17.05 points, or 0.72%, to 2,391.2 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 41.67 points, or 0.7%, to 6,025.49.
Headlines from the U.S. session
- Forex today: dollar mixed despite higher yields
- NAFTA trade update - BBH
- U.S. President Trump reportedly to proposing to slash the tax rate on pass-through companies to 15% - WSJ
- Canada's Natural Resources Min: We will continue to press American counterparts to rescind this unwarranted trade action
- Trump's tax plans to be made public Wednesday - UOB
- US: S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index sets fourth consecutive all-time high
- US: House prices rose in February, up 0.8% from the previous month - FHFA