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US STOCKS HAVE pushed to new record highs, bolstered by solid US manufacturing orders and strong results from US automakers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at an all-time record high of 14,662.01, up 89.16 (0.61 per cent), while the broad-based S&P 500 also reached a new record, gaining 8.08 (0.52 per cent) at 1,570.25 – bringing the stock markets to levels not seen since before the global financial crisis.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also added 15.69 (0.48 per cent) at 3,254.86.
The rally followed a US Department of Commerce report that showed new orders for manufactured goods rose 3.0 per cent in February, topping expectations of a 2.6 per cent increase.
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler reported their best US monthly sales performances since 2007. GM cited “a strengthening economy and new products” as factors behind the result.
GM gained 0.5 percent, while Ford added 0.9 per cent.
Oil refiners took a beating after Valero said new US environmental regulations would cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars. Valero dropped 5.7 peR cent.
Marathon Petroleum slid 4.9 per cent and Phillips 66 lost 3.5 per cent.
Health-care equities rose after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it would increase payments under the Medicare Advantage program by 3.3 per cent in 2014 instead of cutting payments as previously expected.
Dow component UnitedHealth Group Inc. jumped 4.7 percent, Humana put on 5.5 percent, Aetna added 3.7 percent, WellPoint rose 1.5 per cent and Cigna climbed 2.9 per cent.
Youth-oriented clothing chain Urban Outfitters rose 3.8 percent after disclosing in an SEC filing that comparable store sales in the current quarter were “high single-digit positive.”
Nuance Communications, which provides dictation and transcription services, among other voice and language services, gained 5.7 percent after activist investor Carl Icahn took a 9.3 percent stake in the company.
Hewlett-Packard shed 5.2 percent after Goldman Sachs lowered its rating to “sell” from “neutral.”
Delta Air Lines fell 8.1 percent after trimming its estimates for March 2013 air travel business.
The Nasdaq OMX Group, which runs the Nasdaq Exchange, dived 12.8 percent after announcing an acquisition of the eSpeed platform for electronic trading in US Treasuries.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.86 percent from 1.84 percent late Monday, while the 30-year increased to 3.10 percent from 3.09 percent. Bond prices move inversely to yields.
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Record highs? This usually ends well!
Another bubble ready to burst, that quantitative easing printed money has driven this bubble! The money has to go somewhere so why not bet on the stock market! Madness!
I’m pretty sure that’s not how quantitative easing works, think its low interest rates that you need to blame, if the “Everything’s The Fed’s Fault” line is to apply.
But I think that reasoning is a cop out, bordering on a hollow excuse or willful blindness – it’s clear enough that American corporations, financial institutions and the wealthiest in their society have never had it so good, to the detriment of ordinary workers.
Proof? Corporate profits hit an all-time high six months back, wages hitting an all-time low:
It’s fashionable to blame everything on the Fed, but that obscures a more fundamental truth.
+1, but my question is what sort of crash, when? The outcome of the last one was that banks, as the new bookies, know they’ll be bailed out if they make a(nother) balls up. So, what will it take? The Fed cannot turn off the tap, that will create a crash, maybe the Chinese will start selling their hoard? OTOH, the Chinese are the greatest gamblers.
Good news. We will feel the knock on effects in a couple of months… But all our oil has been given away…
When America sneezes, we get a cold.
Hopefully, that idea works in reverse..
Just wait until there is a similar lift here and watch the idiots buying property thats still way over priced.
The never ending bubble thanks to HFT’s. Computers controlling the market, skynet went financial.
8 comments and enda or a bondholder hasnt been mentioned .. Has to be a nee record
You are like the guy in that weakest like program who couldn’t get answer right to the question, what ocean separates Ireland and U.S.A.
Enda.
@Jay Thompson
Theres always one muppet and if you cant work out who it is its usually you
The Fed is still buying Billions of Assets , if there is any hint that the Fed is removing assets from its balance sheet investors will sell , be warned !!!!
the Fed is printing money ad infinitum – and the Govt is buying its own bonds !!
Tthe Bbanks have not remotely the co-lateral they say they have – another bubble .
Wasn’t their auto industry given a massive bailout to ensure their survival? You’d think they’d credit at least some of their current success to that if so. I might be wrong though.
Dam me? Dam you! I am the warrior from Sligo!!!
People, this is a high in NOMINAL TERMS. The Dow would have to almost double to be at a true high.
You are all watching the beginning of the fall of the American Empire.
In endas pocket i tell ya
Ponzi style bookie betting scam is being played out.Funny record rise is stock levels hasn’t seen any knock on effects in major jobs growth in US or Europe with unemployment has increased in Germany to 5.4%.Decline in output levels in the euro zone as well with record unemployment levels across the EU member states even higher than before the EURO currency was introduced.wealthy elites racking up massive profits to the detriment of the other 99% who are stuck in a financial sea of debt.
That’s is the journal are in endas pocket
have your say