US stocks scaled new record highs on Tuesday, on the eve of the Federal Reserve’s rate decision.
With a hike fully priced in, markets were left to focus on driving the Dow Jones Industrial Average towards the 20,000 mark.
Although the marked never got closer than 47 points from that level, the Dow still scaled a fresh record high of 19,953.75 and closed up 0.6% at 19,911, led by a medley of tech and oil stocks with Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) crowning the gains with a 2.3% advance to $36.80.
The CEOs or other top brass of Intel, Apple, Facebook, Tesla, Google, IBM, Cisco will be among the tech leaders meeting with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday in New York where various issues Trump feels strongly about may get aired. Surprisingly, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will not be present, despite Trump’s keenness on the social media platform.
Pre-empting that meeting, IBM (NYSE:IBM) said it plans to hire 25,000 people in the US over the next four years, the group’s chief executive Ginni Rometty declared on Tuesday. She also wrote to Trump a month ago and has since taken on an executive role in the transitional committee for Trump.
The meeting is expected to conclude around 1400 ET (1900 GMT), around the same time as the Fed will announce its rate decision after its two-day session. Markets have been sanguine about the hike they expect to come, although some pundits are warning that 2017 may be where we need to be looking now. Read more.
The market bellwether S&P 500 closed up 0.7% at 2271, having hit a record high of 2277.53, and led by Noble Energy Inc (NYSE:NBL) up 4.5% at $41.64.
The Nasdaq Composite similarly struck a record high of 5,486.75.
Early trading
US stocks opened higher on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average marking fresh record highs and the DJIA less than 100 points off hitting 20,000.
The Dow was up 0.5% at 19,899, having earlier hit a record peak of 19,915.87, with the index literally tracking higher with sportswear maker Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL).
Nike was up 2.2% at $18.54 after the stock was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Tuesday.
Apple was up 1.6% at $11.34, swept up in a general buy on tech stocks on Tuesday. Swept up because the news for Apple itself was far from that bright.
Kwmg LLC reported cutting its stake in Apple by 2.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, some tech reports suggest Apple might be overtaken by rival Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), owner of Google, in 2017 after its revenue declined this year.
Other stocks in the top risers on the Dow included Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) up 1% to $62.79, Intel Corp(NASDAQ:INTC) up 1.1% to $36.38, and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) up 1% to $30.48.
The Nasdaq Composite marked a record high of 5,471.93 and was last up 1.1% at 5471.
It was led higher by OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN), which doubled its share price to $2.10 and at one point nearly trebled it to $3.10.
The S&P 500 market bellwether was up 0.6% at 2271. The ticker marked an intraday high of 2,272.54, and was led by pharma Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL), up 3.3% to $38.35 after overnight news that the stock has become one of the most-shorted in the NASDAQ 100 index, replacing BioMarin Pharma (NASDAQ:BMRN), up 1.8% to $83.46.
The S&P Midcap 400 was up 0.1% at 1684 and led by Jetblue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) up 5.8% to $22.87 after the low-cost carrier reported improved air traffic in the month of November on Monday and analysts seized on the 7.1% improvement in traffic over a year ago. On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity or available seat miles grew 5.2% to 4.26bn.
The S&P Smallcap 600 was up 0.3% at 851 and led by Amphastar Pharma (NASDAQ:AMPH), up 2.9% to $20.23.
Early trading
US stocks are poised to resume their record-breaking run on Tuesday after a minor setback on Monday.
The S&P 500 is indicated opening 0.3% higher.
Last week tickers large and small broke record after record as the Donald Trump rally was unabated.
Oil prices are firmer on Tuesday, which should help buoy the market. The WTI was up 0.5% at $53.08. However, with the Fed starting its two-day rate meeting which is widely expected to conclude on Wednesday with a rate hike, the first in a year and only the second in a decade, investors are wary of going short.
For the S&P 500 index the number to beat for a fresh record is 2,259.53. The S&P 500 market bellwether finished at a record closing high on Friday, pulling off its sixth straight day of gains. That marks the index’s longest winning streak in two and half years. For the week, it is up 3%, its biggest weekly swing higher since mid-November.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite similarly closed at historic highs on Friday and gained 3% and 3.6% for the week, respectively. The small-cap focused Russell 2000 edged 0.1% higher to 1388, yet managed to clock in a 5.6% weekly gain.
Among stocks, Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) announced a cut in 777 production to five from seven per month, beginning next August. Separately, Boeing said it would hike its quarterly dividend by 30 percent and also unveiled a $14bn stock buyback plan. That latter news seems to have helped the stock, up 1.5% at $159.57 pre-market.
Alphabet's Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) unit signed a deal to put computer servers in Cuba, to improve the speed of its services there. Shares were indicated up 0.5% at $812.01.
But Verifone Systems (NYSE:PAY) was indicated lower by 2.4% to $16.04 after the maker of payment terminals gave 2017 guidance that comes in below Street estimates.