por admin » Mar Ago 21, 2018 12:08 pm
S&P 500 hits all-time high, and ties record for longest bull market ever
Fred Imbert | Michael Sheetz | Alexandra Gibbs
Published 7 Hours Ago Updated 2 Mins Ago
CNBC.com
PLAY VIDEO
S&P 500 touches highest level since January 29
The S&P 500 hit an all-time high on Tuesday, with the current bull market on track to become the longest in history.
The broad index rose 0.5 percent to a new record, led by consumer discretionary and energy. In midday trading, the S&P 500 surpassed 2,872 a high reached on Jan. 26.
The bull market turns 3,453 days old on Wednesday, which would make it the longest on record by most definitions. Tuesday, it tied the one that ran from October 1990 to March 2000. The S&P 500 has risen more than 300 percent since hitting its financial crisis bottom. For the year, the index is up more than 7 percent.
"Nobody believed in this bull market and they still don't," said Marc Chaikin, CEO of Chaikin Analytics. Lots of people "were left so scarred by the crisis they didn't get on board."
Chaikin also said the bull run can continue: "We have an economy that is not overheated and rates are still low. Couple that with the fact that people keep finding reasons to hate this market, that is a perfect storm for more gains."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 130 points, with Intel and Caterpillar leading the index. The Dow Transports hit its first intraday record high since Jan. 16. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 1 percent as Micron and Netflix rose. The Russell 2000, which is made up of small cap stocks, reached a record high.
Traders and financial professionals work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ahead of the opening bell.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Traders and financial professionals work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ahead of the opening bell.
"It looks like the market wants to inch higher and perhaps take out the earlier highs," Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, told CNBC. "You still have hovering over the markets issues that could cause fundamental change – and above all else it is the Fed."
President Donald Trump went after the Federal Reserve once again, saying Monday he disagrees with the Fed's current tightening path for monetary policy. The Fed has already raised rates twice this year and is expected to raise rates two more times. Trump's comments, which weighed on interest rates on Monday, come shortly ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at Jackson Hole on Friday.
The dollar reached intraday lows on Monday after Trump's comments, continuing to fall 0.3 percent on Tuesday.
"If the inflation data dictates higher rates and the Fed instead buckles to political pressure and doesn't respond, long term rates will tighten for them," said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, in a note. Just "ask the Turkish central bank."
Trump is also reportedly preparing to add tariffs on nearly half of Chinese imports this week. The new round of tariffs would come despite the expectation of restarted negotiations between the two largest economies of the world.
J.P. Morgan is about to flip the switch ona new digital investing service, taking a bite out of discount online brokerages. The bank's new service "You Invest" will feature a bundle of discounted trading, an online portfolio-building tool and no-fee access to J.P. Morgan's stock research.
After CNBC reported the bank's new service, shares of Charles Schwab fell 2 percent, TD Ameritrade fell 5.4 percent, E-Trade fell 3 percent and Interactive Brokers fell 0.8 percent.
Prudential's Krosby added that "this is a low volume period in the market," saying the months of August and September "tend to be choppy" due to stocks being "jostled very quickly by a single headline." With "so many threads" possibly moving stocks – whether it is the Fed, trade, the bull run or banks – Krosby says the market "is hedging itself." Traders are making defensive moves, in Krosby's view, as she sees a shift from technology stocks into more durable areas like health care, pharmaceuticals, telecom and utilities.