Dow Closes Above 49,000; S&P 500 Record; Nasdaq Rises; Nvidia, Chevron, Intel, Palantir, Tesla, More Movers
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finally finished north of 49,000 Tuesday, and the S&P 500 hit a milestone of its own.
The Dow gained 485 points, or 1%. The S&P 500 rose 0.6%. Both finished the day with closing highs. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.7% to move another step closer to its Oct. 29 high.
For the second day in a row, the major indexes were paying catch-up to the Dow. The Russell 2000 also outperformed the pack.
Memory chip stocks continued their torrid pace in recent weeks, with Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology posting double-digit gains.
Mizuho’s Daniel O’Regan writes that comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about memory demand paired with bullish commentary from some Wall Street analysts.
“That is PROPELLING the memory space to all-time highs and dragging other parts of semi’s with it,” O’Regan writes.
Materials, health care, industrials, and consumer discretionary were also among the leaders, but the day’s rally was broad. Energy and communication services were the only notable laggards in the S&P 500. The former followed a pullback in the price of WTI crude oil futures.
The majority of the stocks in the S&P finished the day higher.
The rally in precious metals also continued: Silver futures hit a record at $80.53 a troy ounce, while gold was back near its highs from Dec. 26.
It’s still too early to tell if the recent market broadening has legs, but so far so good.
