The three benchmark averages all closed at record highs Wednesday as positive earnings and recent efforts by President Trump to advance infrastructure spending rekindled the Trump rally, and drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average through the 20,000 milestone.
Earnings contributed to the record-setting day with component stock Boeing ( BA ) adding more than 50 points to the Dow's triple digit gain as the aircraft maker beat Q4 earnings estimates. Alcoa ( AA ) and Novartis ( NVS ) missed on earnings but reported better-than-expected revenue.
The financial sector led S&P 500 sectors, but it was industrial and material stocks that capitalized on Trump's recent executive orders aimed at increasing infrastructure spending by resuming construction on the Dakota Access and Keystone pipelines.
Additionally, Trump said on Wednesday that he would proceed with plans to build a border wall between the U.S.'s southern border and Mexico. As a result, shares of engineering firms like KBR ( KBR ), Fluor ( FLR ) and Aecom (ACM) all posted significant gains pulling the industrial sector of the S&P up more than 1% for a second day.
In economic news, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported a 0.5% increase in home prices in November, in-line with expectations. Home prices rose a revised 0.3% in October, initially reported as +0.4%.
Thursday'seconomic calendarpicks up significantly with the release of initial jobless claims, international trade in goods, the Chicago Fed national activity index, January flash PMI services-sector index, new home sales, leading economic indicators and the Kansas City Fed manufacturing index.
Here's where the markets stood at the close:
US MARKETS
Dow Jones Industrial Index was up 155.80 points (+0.78%)
S&P 500 was up 18.30 points (+0.80%)
Nasdaq Composite Index was up 55.38 points (+0.99%)
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
FTSE 100 was up 0.20%
Nikkei 225 was up 1.43%
Hang Seng Index was up 0.43%
Shanghai China Composite Index was up 0.22%
UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) ACAT (+41.71%) Agreed to be acquired by Textron (TXT) for $247 million
(+) BOBE (+20.83%) Will sell Bob Evans restaurants to Golden Gate Capital for $565 million and acquire Pineland Farms Potato Company
(+) STX (+13.97%) Beat Q2 estimates and issued strong revenue forecast for Q3
(+) LOGI (+13.15%) Reported better-than-expected fiscal Q3 results
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) LN (-11.08%) Missed Q4 profit and sales estimates
(-) HZN (-9.67%) Reported preliminary 2016 results, announced proposed offering of 4.03 million shares and $115 million in convertible notes
(-) TXT (-5.37%) Missed Q4 revenue and EPS estimates, acquiring Artic Cat
(-) NEWT (-5.23%) Priced 2.3 million stock offering at 6% discount to Tuesday's closing price
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
