Dow closes at a high for the seventh session in a row
U.S. stocks set fresh records on Tuesday, 13 December 2016 with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at a high for the seventh session in a row as it moved within 100 points of the 20,000 milestone ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision Wednesday. With the market believing that a rate hike will be announced tomorrow for all the right economic reasons, equity indices were free to continue their climb to stratospheric heights. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended at record levels with the large-cap index hitting its 18th closing high.
The Dow climbed 114.78 points, or 0.6%, to end at 19,911.21 after touching an intraday high of 19,953.75. The S&P 500 index rose 14.76 points, or 0.7%, to close at 2,271.72, with nine of the index's 11 sectors in positive territory. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index added 51.29 points, or 1%, to finish at 5,463.83.
Intel and Exxon Mobil contributed the most to the rise in the benchmark.
The market is pricing in a nearly 100% chance that the Federal Open Market Committee will lift key interest rates, which leaves much attention on clues for future policy decisions.
The central bank will deliver its rate announcement on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time. The bank is widely expected to raise its benchmark rate by 25 basis points.
The U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the greenback's performance against a basket of six rival currencies, traded at 101.07.
U.S. stocks also benefited from an uptick in demand for risky European assets. Earlier, UniCredit said it plans to shed 17.7 billion ($18.9 billion) in bad debt. The move, which will help to restore Italy's largest lender to health, assuaged fears about Italy's troubled banking sector.
Strong readings on Chinese industrial production and retail sales provided more evidence that the world's second-largest economy steadied in November, helping to boost global risk sentiment.
In other economic news, the NFIB small-business index jumped by the largest monthly amount in more than seven years in November on optimism Trump's administration will spur an increase in business activity.
Oil prices settled modestly higher, but below $53 a barrel. The International Energy Agency lifted its demand forecasts for 2016 and commitment by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut oil production have boosted oil prices in recent days.
Treasuries saw gains in overnight action, but the 10-yr note returned to its flat line by the close. The benchmark yield settled at 2.47% while the 2-yr yield rose two basis points to 1.17%. The long bond ended higher, pressuring its yield two basis points to 3.14%.
Today's participation was above average as more than one billion shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
Investors received just one economic report today. Import prices excluding oil decreased 0.1% in November after declining 0.1% last month while export prices excluding agriculture also declined 0.1% after increasing 0.2% in October.
Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be released at 7:00 ET while November Retail Sales (consensus 0.3%) and November PPI (consensus 0.1%) will cross the wires at 8:30 ET. November Industrial Production (consensus -0.1%) and Capacity Utilization (consensus 75.1%) will be reported at 9:15 ET while October Business Inventories (consensus -0.1%) will be released at 10:00 ET.
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