The Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices closed Thursday at record highs and the Dow Jones also rose after US President Joe Biden favored a bipartisan deal on infrastructure in the Senate.
With massive fiscal stimulus helping the US economy grow at an annualized rate of 6.4% in the first quarter, investors have bet on an infrastructure deal that could fuel the next leg of the recovery of the world’s largest economy and stimulate more stock market gains.
Construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar and aerospace company Boeing rose, helping lift the Dow Jones industrial average.
In the short term, I think there will be a bit of ‘buy the buzz and sell the news’ in materials and industrials, but as we start to see more details on how the money will be spent, I think we will make a continued profit, “he said. Sal Bruno, Chief Investment Officer at IndexIQ.
Driving the earnings of the S&P 500 more than any other stock, Tesla rose after its chairman Elon Musk said that shares of SpaceX’s space company Starlink will go public when its cash flow is reasonably predictable, adding that shareholders Tesla might have investment preference.
Megacap companies PayPal and Facebook were among the biggest boosters for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 7,000 to 411,000 in the week ended June 19, the Labor Department said Thursday, but were still higher than the 380,000 economists had predicted.
The Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 6.4% rate last quarter, without revising the estimate published in May.
So far this month, the S&P 500 growth rate is up nearly 4%, while the value index is down 2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 322.58 points, or 0.95%, to 34,196.82 units, while the S&P 500 advanced 24.65 points, or 0.58%, to 4,266.49 units. The Nasdaq gained 97,976 points, or 0.69%, to 14,369,709 points.
