Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Set Intraday Highs as Wall Street Powers Higher - TheStreet
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq set intraday record highs on Wednesday, Jan. 3, as global markets continued to ride a bullish wave powered by synchronized growth and accelerating corporate profits.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 57 points, or 0.23%, and hit an intraday high of 24,894. The S&P 500 rose 9.6 points and topped 2,700 for the first time. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq started off the new year with record closes on Tuesday, Jan. 2. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. issued a research note on Wednesday that forecast the S&P 500 will rise 7% in 2018 to 2850, with a total return of 9%.
The Nasdaq closed Tuesday above 7,000 for the first time, and was up 39 points, or 0.55%, early Wednesday.
Stocks added to gains after the Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index rose to 59.7 in December from 58.2 in November.
Stocks have risen four of the last five trading days.
Intel Corp. (INTC) fell 2.7% early Wednesday on reports of a a potential bug in the chipmaker's technology. Shares of rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) jumped 6%.
Scana Corp. (SCG) shares jumped 22.6% after reaching an agreement to merge with Dominion Energy Inc. (D) in a stock-for-stock deal valued at about $7.9 billion.
The U.S. rejected the sale of money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc. (MGI) to Chinese billionaire Jack Ma's Ant Financial Services Group. MoneyGram shares fell 7.9%.
Tesla Inc. (TSLA) shares rose 0.7% ahead of the electric carmaker's release of Model 3 production numbers on Thursday, Jan. 4. From Wall Street research notes to various auto blogs, it looks like Tesla could badly whiff on its Model 3 delivery goals.
Tesla Is Probably on the Verge of Seriously Freaking Out Wall StreetFord Motor Co. (F) said U.S. sales in December rose 0.9%, beating expectations that called for a decrease of 2%. Ford shares gained 0.5%. General Motors Co. (GM) said sales in December fell 3.3%, narrower than estimates of a sales drop of 5.5%. The stock gained 2.5%.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Europe index, the region's broadest measure of share prices, added 0.5%, driven in part by solid gains for benchmarks in Germany.
Overnight in Asia, the dollar continued to tumble as investors swapped more cash into regional currencies in the wake of much stronger-than-expected readings for manufacturing activity in both China and its neighboring economies.
Oil prices in the U.S. rose 1.1% to $61.04 a barrel amid upbeat forecasts for growth in some of the world's most heavily industrialized economies.
Wall Street is awaiting minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's Dec. 13 meeting at 2 p.m. ET. At that meeting, the Federal Reserve's rate-setting body raised interest rates a quarter point and lifted its economic growth forecast for 2018.
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