The bull market is proving to be one unstoppable beast.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 25,000 for the first time on Thursday, Jan. 4, amid a renewed charge in the global stock rally that continues to test records for high prices and low volatility.
Cboe Volatility Index (VIX.X) dipped below 9.0 on Thursday for the second consecutive day. The index, commonly regarded as Wall Street's "fear gauge," has never before read below 9.0 for two straight days since its inception 28 years ago.
The index reached as low as 8.92 early Thursday. It's only ever fallen lower than 9.0 on seven days since its creation. Six of those seven days have occurred in the last six months, with the other happening in December 1993.
Stocks in Europe and Asia posted sizable gains on Thursday.
The Dow gained 0.66% to 25,080, the S&P 500 rose 0.55% and the Nasdaq gained 0.36%. All three indexes notched intraday records.
Leading the Dow higher were Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) . Dow laggards on Thursday included Boeing (BA) , Chevron (CVX) , Disney (DIS) and Exxon-Mobil (XOM) .
Official Dow 25,000 hat on the @Nyse floor - mom, I made it. pic.twitter.com/DC55VvA5cg
- Brian Sozzi (@BrianSozzi)January 4, 2018Intel fell 4% after reports of a security flaw in the chipmaker's central processing units whose fixing causes a performance hit.
Intel's Response to Its Security Problem Suggests AMD Has an OpeningThe U.S. dollar index, which benchmarks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, fell 0.37% to 91.85 as investors pared holdings following the release Wednesday of minutes from the Federal Reserve's December policy meeting and increasing questions of the fate of the central bank's rate hike path.
Many of those questions could be addressed with the official U.S. jobs report to be released on Friday, Jan. 5.
On Thursday, private-sector hiring in December came in stronger than expected, according to data from Automatic Data Processing. Employers added 250,000 jobs, far more than economists had expected.
Tesla Inc. (TSLA) fell 1.3% after the electric carmaker cautioned that deliveries of its flagship Model 3 will fall significantly short of estimates. TheStreet's Executive Editor Brian Sozzi points out Tesla has another issue on its horizon.
Snap Inc. (SNAP) slumped 5% after the social messaging app was downgraded to "underperform" by research group Cowen & Co.
More of Snap's Value Disappears After Cowen & Co. DowngradeWalgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) posted fiscal first-quarter earnings that were better than Wall Street forecasts. The stock fell 5.3% after analysts called the results "mixed."
CVS Health Corp. (CVS) said Thursday it expects revenue growth in 2018 of 0.75% to 2.5%. The stock rose 3.3%.
J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) said same-store sales for the holiday months of November and December rose more than 3% during the November and December months compared with the same period last year. The stock, however, tumbled 5.7%. Macy's (M) also chimed in with better than expected holiday sales, reports TheStreet's Cathaleen Chen.
Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) said same-store sales in December jumped grew 11.5%, topping Wall Street's estimate of 8.1% growth. The stock fell 1.2%.
Costco Clearly Not Hurt by the 'Amazon Effect'More of What's Trending on TheStreet:
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