U.S. stocks closed higher Wednesday with the Dow industrials and S&P 500 notching new records, shaking off early weakness in the health-care sector to extend gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.14% marked its third consecutive record close, surging 297.84, or 1.6%, to finish at 19,549.62, following a fresh intraday record. Gains in Nike Inc. NKE, -0.02%, Home Depot Inc. HD, +0.75% and Visa Inc. V, -2.26% outweighed a slump in health-care shares of Johnson & Johnson Inc. JNJ, -0.98%, Pfizer Inc. PFE, +0.90% and Merck & Co. MRK, -3.58%

The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.01%, which also reached an intraday trading high, closed at a record of 2,241.35, a gain of 29.12 points, or 1.3%, with all sectors except the health care—which finished down 0.8%—closing for a gain.

The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.19% which had been trading in negative territory earlier, turned higher, and finished up 60.76 points, or 1.1%, at 5,393.76, a few points shy of its record close set in late November.

Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 index RUT, +1.27%, a gauge of shares of small-capitalization companies, closed at a record of 1,364.50, after a gain of 11.84 points, or 0.9%. The index has climbed more than 13% since the U.S. presidential election.

Highlighting how markets were broadly climbing, the Dow Jones Transportation Average DJT, +2.02% also closed at a record of 9,371.61, after logging its first record intraday high in more than two years.

Health-care names tumbled early Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump threatened to cut drug prices. “I’m going to bring down drug prices,” Trump told Time in his “Person of the Year” cover story. “I don’t like what has happened with drug prices.”

The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF IBB, -0.40%, the most widely used way to place bets on the biotech space, sank 3%.

The stock market’s postelection ascent has been underpinned by hopes that Trump will follow through with a slate of pro-business policies, including boosting infrastructure spending and cutting taxes for the wealthy.

Frank Cappelleri, executive director at Instinet LLC, said investors caught flat-footed by the sustained rally following Trump’s unexpected Election Day win are still rotating into stocks.

“Investors may see a few days of a pause as a reason to get back involved,” said Cappelleri. He said the second reason why this move can extend higher is because investors betting on a downturn “are a little gun-shy” after getting burned in November.

Other strategists say the market has traded in a relatively narrow range since 2014 and make the case that the Trump rally has only lasted a month and has a shot at moving higher into the end of the year.

“It has only been about four weeks since the breakout for stocks and a lot of people are looking at this to be quickly aborted, but the market shouldn’t be faulted for expecting more,” said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at brokerage firm Robert W. Baird & Co.

Another factor that may be supporting stock gains is the belief that traditional selling patterns that occur at the end of the year aren’t being followed because investors are making bets on lower taxes under a Trump administration.

“Anyone who has gained [in December] are not going to want to sell their stocks and pay taxes in April 2017, when they can wait till 2018,” Bittles said. Of course, taxes on profits from the sale of assets could be higher then, but Bittles says Wall Street thinks that it makes more sense to wait and see, which is reducing traditional selling of stocks to take year-end profits and encouraging buying.

“It appears that nothing can stop the equity rally,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at ThinkMarkets UK, in a note.

However, some strategists and traders are concerned that a pullback might be in the offing because the market has climbed too fast and too furiously.

Indeed, the CBOE Volatility Index VIX, +1.80% is trading at just under 12, which implies that investors may be getting complacent. “Buying volatility at these levels may not be that much of a bad idea,” Aslam said.

Read: Why the rally by U.S. stocks is ‘just getting started’—in one chart

Other markets: European stocks SXXP, -0.28% finished higher, with banks and miners among the session’s big winners, and Asian markets closed broadly higher. Oil futures CLF27, -49.47% settled down 2.3% at $49.77 a barrel, while gold futures US:GCZ6 advanced 0.6% to settle at $1,177.50 an ounce while a key dollar index DXY, +0.10% slipped 0.3%.

Individual stocks: Ahead of the opening bell, Brown-Forman Corp. BF.A, +1.47% reported quarterly sales that topped estimates, as the maker of Jack Daniel’s whiskey backed its full-year forecast. Shares closed down 0.9%.

Handbag seller Vera Bradley Inc. VRA, +2.71% cut its full-year outlook after missing its own guidance range for the third quarter. Shares tumbled 13%.

Western Digital Corp. WDC, +0.82% shares jumped to close 8.3% higher after the computer hardware maker raised its outlook late Tuesday.

Micron Technology Inc. MU, +0.33% shares rallied 7.3% after Citigroup rated the stock a buy.

Shares of Under Armour Inc. CH:UAA UA, +3.04% surged after the athletic apparel company changed its stock tickers. Class A shares closed up 4.3%, and Class C shares rose 6.4%.

Economic news: Consumer credit in October rose $16 billion, but that was at the slowest pace since June.

The JOLTS report, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, showed that job openings were unchanged at 5.5 million in October, according to Labor Department.

Investors also are bracing for the European Central Bank’s policy-setting meeting on Thursday. The Federal Reserve entered the so-called blackout period Tuesday ahead of its meeting Dec. 13-14, so there are no Fed speakers on the docket.

Check out: MarketWatch’s Economic Calendar

—Victor Reklaitis in London contributed to this article. </s> The Dow closed above 26,000 for the first time Wednesday, continuing an early-year stock surge that has pushed the U.S. market to fresh records.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 323 points, or 1.3%, to a record 26,115.65, according to preliminary numbers.

The fresh milestone comes just 13 calendar days after the 30-stock index topped 25,000, marking the fastest 1,000-point climb in its history, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The Dow, which rallied 25.1% last year, has continued its surge at the start of 2018 amid rising optimism that tax cuts will lift corporate earnings and the economy. </s> US stocks plunged in highly volatile trading on Monday, with the Dow industrials falling nearly 1,600 points during the session, its biggest intraday decline in history, as investors grappled with rising bond yields and potentially firming inflation.



The benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow suffered their biggest percentage drops since August 2011 as a long-awaited pullback from record highs deepened.



The financial, healthcare, and industrial sectors fell the most but declines were spread broadly as all major 11 S&P groups dropped at least 1.7 percent. All 30 of the blue-chip Dow industrial components finished negative.

With Monday’s declines, the S&P 500 erased its gains for 2018 and is now down 0.9 percent in 2018.

Many investors have been bracing for a pullback for months, as the stock market has minted record high after record high with investors encouraged by solid economic data and corporate earnings prospects, the latter bolstered by recently passed US corporate tax cuts.

Friday’s January jobs report sparked worries over inflation and a surge in bond yields, as well as concerns that the Federal Reserve will raise rates at a faster pace than expected.

“The market has had an incredible run,” Michael O’Rourke — the chief market strategist at Greenwich, Connecticut-based JonesTrading — said.

“We have an environment where interest rates are rising. We have a stronger economy so the Fed should continue to tighten ... You’re seeing real changes occur and different investments are adjusting to that,” O‘Rourke said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,175.21 points (4.6 percent) to 24,345.75, the S&P 500 lost 113.19 points (4.10 percent) to 2,648.94, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 273.42 points (3.78 percent) to 6,967.53.

The S&P 500 ended 7.8 percent down from its record high on Jan. 26, with the Dow down 8.5 percent over that time.

Even with the sharp declines, stocks finished above their lows touched during the session. At one point, the Dow fell 6.3 percent or 1,597 points, the biggest one-day points loss ever, as it breached both the 25,000 and 24,000 levels during trading.

The stock market has climbed to record peaks since US President Donald Trump’s election and remains up 23.8 percent since his victory. Trump has frequently touted the rise of the stock market during his presidency.

As the stock market fell on Monday, the White House said the fundamentals of the US economy are strong.

The CBOE Volatility index — the closely followed measure of expected near-term stock market volatility — jumped 20 points to 30.71, its highest level since August 2015.

Until recently, gains for stocks have come as the market has been relatively subdued, and any declines were met with buyers looking for bargains.

“People who have been buying the dip are now going to be selling the rip,“ Dennis Dick — a proprietary trader at Las Vegas-based Bright Trading LLC — said. ”The psychology of the market changed today. It’ll take a while to get that psychology back.”

About 11.5 billion shares changed hands in US exchanges, well above the 7.6 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by an 8.64-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 6.92-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week highs and 38 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 17 new highs and 164 new lows. </s> NEW YORK — The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at over 21,00 points for the first time ever on Wednesday. It gained more than 300 points to close at 21,115.

The market has soared more than 15 percent since Donald Trump won the presidency. As Jim Axelrod reports, President Trump’s address to Congress deepened optimism that corporate earnings will continue to climb.

“The combination of proposals — corporate tax cuts, the loosening of regulations — is exactly what Wall Street wants to hear,” Axelrod told Scott Pelley on the “CBS Evening News.”

Watch the video above for more from Axelrod’s report, including why one investor says the market is like a voting machine. </s> U.S. equities closed at all-time highs on Wednesday after a series of executive orders from President Donald Trump increased bullish sentiment on Wall Street, while financials outperformed.

The Dow Jones industrial average broke above 20,000 for the first time, rising about 150 points as Boeing, Goldman Sachs and IBM contributed the most gains.



"People are seeing that the administration is carrying through with some of the things they promised," said John Stadtler, head of U.S. Financial Services Industry Practice at PwC. "It looks like long-term capital gains are here to stay."

Dow since US election Source: FactSet



The S&P 500 advanced 0.8 percent to a new all-time high, with financials rising more than 1.5 percent.



"Clearly, this has become a buy-high-sell-higher market with the Dow breaking above 20,000," said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. "Out of the gate, President Trump is moving along with his agenda."

"More importantly, earnings have been on the cusp of increasing, and that's going to be key to hold these valuations," Sandven said.

The Nasdaq composite gained 0.99 percent, also notching a record high.



"Traders have been waiting for more details on infrastructure spending and now they have it in a very clear format," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets. "There is nothing bigger than this. A break of 20,000 for the Dow stimulates fresh capital which has been waiting for this moment to join this party." </s> Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to its first close above 26,000 points.

The Dow had traded above that level on Tuesday but wound up closing lower that day. The Dow’s surge on Wednesday was driven in part by a big gain in Boeing.

With the stock market reaching records so often, 1,000-point moves in the Dow have become increasingly commonplace. It’s been just eight trading days since the Dow had its first close above 25,000.

Technology stocks were again some of the biggest winners. Microsoft rose 2%. The Dow rose 332 points, or 1.3%, to 26,115. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 26 points, or 0.9%, to 2,802. The Nasdaq composite gained 74 points, or 1%, to 7,298. </s> The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared to a record closing high on Tuesday, breaking through levels last seen in 2007 and as investors rushed in to join the party in anticipation of more gains.

Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average shot up 126.18 points, or 0.89 percent, to end unofficially at 14,253.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 14.60 points, or 0.96 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,539.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index was jumped 42.10 points, or 1.32 percent, to close unofficially at 3,224.13. </s> U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Tuesday on the heels of selloffs earlier in the day in Asia and Europe and one day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed the most points in one day in its more than 120-year history.

The Dow fell 530 points at the market open and the more broad-based Standard & Poors 500 Index (S&P 500) tumbled 1.3 percent. The technology heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.1 percent.

Earlier Tuesday, Asia's benchmark stock indexes collapsed, as Monday's massive selloffs on Wall Street rolled across the globe.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index lost as much seven percent of its value at one point during the trading session, before closing at 21,610 points, a loss of nearly five percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index followed suit, dropping just over five percent in its worst trading day since August 2015.

The benchmark indexes in Australia and South Korea also suffered serious losses.

In early Europe trading London's FTSE 100 was down 3.5 percent at 7,081 points.

Asian markets were caught in the ripple effect of Monday's 1,175-point loss on the Dow, marking the biggest point decline in history. The S&P 500 also had a bad day, losing just over four percent to finish at 2,648 points.

The stock market has now lost about a trillion dollars in value since Friday, when the Dow lost 666 points. That drop followed a solid jobs report that showed the U.S. economy adding 200 thousand jobs and wages rising at the fastest pace in a decade. The tighter labor market and rising wages prompted investor fears of higher inflation and the possibility that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates faster and higher than they have in recent years.

Analysts who spoke with VOA had been expecting a stock market "correction," a decline of at least 10 percent from the most recent record highs, as a result of the record run-up in stock prices this year. </s> Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 200 points on Tuesday, indicating that the blue-chip index could open above 26,000 for the first time, supported by strong earnings from UnitedHealth.

Shares of the largest U.S. health insurer rose 3 percent in premarket trading after the company reported fourth-quarter results that beat analysts’ estimates and raised its full-year profit forecast.

If the Dow hits 26,000 on Tuesday, it would mark its fastest 1000-point rise. It ended above 25,000 on Jan. 4.
U.S. stocks closed higher Wednesday with the Dow industrials and S&P 500 notching new records.