That came a day after the Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed at its own record high.
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The US stock market hit another milestone as the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high, a day after the Standard & Poor’s 500 index did. The blue-chips gauge surpassed its previous record of 18,312.39 set on 19 May 2015 and briefly high an intraday high of 18,371.95.
Dow e-minis were up 72 points, or 0.4 percent at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT), with 25,874 contracts changing hands. That is 37 points higher than its closing high in May past year.
The Nasdaq composite added 34.18 points, or 0.7 percent, to 5,022.82.
The soaring US stocks have puzzled some analysts, as they have taken off less than two weeks after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union – a move many expected to tarnish financial markets worldwide. The index, which is heavily weighted with technology and biotech stocks, erased its losses for the year on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 gained 13 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,150.
The US dollar hit its highest in more than two weeks against the yen of 104.97 yen, while gold posted its biggest one-day fall in three weeks.
ENERGY BOOST: Oil drillers and other energy companies are rising on a jump in oil prices. Most economists anticipate the Bank of England to look to stimulate the British economy at the policy meeting on Thursday with some expecting the central bank to reduce its benchmark interest rate to a new record low from the current 0.5 percent, where it has been since March 2009.
Despite recent increases, however, bond yields remain near historic lows, a worrisome sign to many analysts.
“Once you break convincingly above the old high, you get the momentum buying coming in”, said Michael Jones, chief investment officer of RiverFront Investment Group in Richmond, Virginia. “I feel underinvested, but I’m not willing to chase stocks”.
Safe-haven assets such as US Treasuries, the Japanese yen and gold fell in price.
Alcoa reported a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profit, sending the aluminium producer’s shares up more than 5 per cent and helping boost optimism about the earnings season.
The S&P 500 is up 108.20 points, or 5.3 percent.
Seagate Technology surged 5.26 dollars, or 21.8%, to 29.35 dollars after forecasting strong sales.
Benchmark US crude added 2.04 dollars to close at 46.80 dollars a barrel in NY. Brent crude, a standard for global oil prices, rose $1.99 to $48.24 a barrel in London. In other energy trading in NY, wholesale gasoline rose 5 cents to $1.43 a gallon, heating oil rose 5 cents to $1.46 a gallon and natural gas rose 3 cents to $2.73 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Traders are also being encouraged by expectations of more stimulus from Japan, where newly re-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised new government spending. Investors are betting he’ll keep flooding the market with money by expanding bond purchases. In Europe, the European Stoxx 600 rose about 1% and the German DAX jumped 1.33%. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent to 6,695.74.
Shares of Nintendo Co. jumped 12.7 percent in Tokyo.
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United States government bond prices fell. “If that is the case, stocks should continue on at least another 5-percent gain from here this year”, said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer, Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions at Voya Investment Management in NY. The yield plunged last week as low as 1.32%, an all-time low, according to Tradeweb.
