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The Dow Jones industrial average ended just 25 points shy of
20,000, a level it has never breached, helped by a 1.68 percent
gain in Goldman Sachs.
U.S. stocks have been on a tear since the Nov. 8 presidential
election, with the Dow up 9 percent and the S&P 500 gaining 6
percent on bets that Trump's plans for deregulation and
infrastructure spending will boost the economy.
"The market is focused on the Trump agenda, which is tax cuts,
infrastructure spending and deregulation," said Jeff Zipper,
managing director for investments at Private Client Reserve at
U.S. Bank in Palm Beach, Florida.
Some investors believe stocks have become expensive. The S&P 500
is trading at about 17 times expected earnings, well above its
10-year average of 14, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.
The Dow's 20,000 mark represents a major milestone on Wall
Street and some investors believe that piercing that level would
signal the recent rally may continue. The Dow first hit 10,000
in 1999.
"To have enough energy to push through that barrier would mean
there's a lot of buying power in the system," said Brad
McMillan, Chief Investment Officer for Commonwealth Financial
Network. "Once we do crack through, that ceiling will tend to
become a floor."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 91.56 points, or
0.46 percent, to end at 19,974.62 points, a record high close.
The S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 8.23 points, or 0.36 percent, to
finish at 2,270.76 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> had added
26.50 points, or 0.49 percent, to 5,483.94, also a record high
close.
Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors rose, with the financial
index's <.SPSY> 1.12 percent rise leading the advancers. That
brought the financial sector's gain since the election to 19
percent as investors bet Trump will cut regulations including
Dodd-Frank, which was passed in response to the 2008 financial
crisis but which some investors say is too restrictive.
Wells Fargo <WFC.N> rose 1.59 percent and Citigroup <C.N> added
1.91 percent.
The consumer discretionary index <.SPLRCD> rose 0.78 percent.
General Mills <GIS.N> fell 2.55 percent after the Cheerios
cereal-maker's quarterly results missed expectations.
After the bell, Nike <NKE.N> rose 3 percent on a strong
quarterly report from the sports apparel seller, which is a
component of the Dow.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.84-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.88-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 37 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 235 new highs and 36 new lows.
With some investors already away for the end-of-year holidays,
about 6.1 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, well
below the 7.5 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.
(Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by
James Dalgleish and Meredith Mazzilli)
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