{"id":102775,"date":"2017-03-02T06:09:44","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T11:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=102775"},"modified":"2017-03-02T06:09:44","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T11:09:44","slug":"us-stock-markets-march-to-record-highs-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2017\/03\/us-stock-markets-march-to-record-highs-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"US stock market\u2019s march to record highs continues"},"content":{"rendered":"
March 2, 2017<\/div>
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By IFCMarkets<\/a><\/p>\n

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Dow closes above 21000<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

US stock indices <\/b>closed at new record highs on Wednesday with market sentiment boosted by conciliatory tone of President Trump\u2019s Congress address Tuesday evening. The dollar continued strengthening following New York Fed President William Dudley\u2019s comment the case for a rate hike has become \u201ca lot more compelling\u201d : the live dollar index<\/a> data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar\u2019s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, closed up 0.3% at 101.172. The S&P 500<\/a> rose 1.4% settling at record 2395.96 led by financial stocks, up 2.8% with nine of the S&P 500\u2032s 11 primary sectors ending higher. The Dow Jones industrial jumped 1.5% breaching above 21000 mark to close at a record 211150.55 led by JP Morgan and American Express. The Nasdaq index closed up gained 1.4% to a record 5904.03.<\/p>\n

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Trump said he would initiate new infrastructure spending projects worth around $1 trillion and promised massive tax cuts, though didn\u2019t provide any details for his plans or concrete timelines. The stock market rally fueled by expectations of expansionary fiscal measures proclaimed by Trump since election has driven stock valuations higher making equities quite expensive in terms of high price-to- earnings ratios. It is worth noting that current higher valuations are supported by earnings growth, with investors expecting additional stimulus measures boosting earnings even higher. Recent positive data and hawkish comments by Fed officials have raised also expectations of a rate hike at Fed\u2019s meeting in mid-March: the probability for a March rate hike is 66%, up from 35% on Tuesday, according to CME Group\u2019s FedWatch tool. Data on Wednesday showed the manufacturing index from the Institute for Supply Management rose to 57.7 in February, its highest level in more than two years. The headline inflation rose to the highest level since 2012, raising the likelihood of monetary tightening sooner rather than later. Investors will watch closely Fed chair Janet Yellen\u2019s speech on Friday for more clues on central bank\u2019s rate hike timing. Today at 14:30 CET Initial Jobless Claims and Continuing Claims, will be released in US. The tentative outlook is neutral. And at 16:30 CET Natural Gas Storage Change will be released by the Energy Information Administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Optimism about US economy lifts European stocks<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

European stocks <\/b>closed at highest levels year to date with investor optimism buoyed by President Trump\u2019s plans to propose Congress approve additional $1 trillion spending programs and cut taxes for corporations and middle class Americans. Both the euro and British Pound continued the slide against the dollar. The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 1.5% to highest close since December 2015. Germany\u2019s DAX 30 gained 2% to 112067.19. France\u2019s CAC 40 <\/a>outperformed jumping 2.1% and UK\u2019s FTSE 100 index rose 1.6% to record high 7382.90.<\/p>\n

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European stocks were lifted also by weaker currency which boosted earnings prospects of exporters. Good economic data also boosted investor risk appetite: Germany\u2019s inflation hit 2.2% in February, the highest in more than 4 years, and activity in the euro-zone\u2019s manufacturing sector expanded in February though at a slower rate than previously estimated. Today at 10:30 CET February Construction PMI will be published in UK, the outlook is negative for British Pound. At 11:00 CET February consumer price index will be released in euro-zone, the tentative outlook is positive for euro.<\/p>\n

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Asian stocks mixed<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Asian stocks<\/b> are mixed today with investors digesting President Trump\u2019s Congress address the previous day. Nikkei gained 0.9% to 19564.80 today on continued yen weakness against the dollar, with exporters benefitting from lower yen. The Shanghai Composite Index is down 0.5% on expectations of tighter credit as China’s newly appointed banking regulator vowed today to strengthen supervision of the lending sector and Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng Index is 0.2% lower. Australia\u2019s All Ordinaries Index is up 1.2% with the Australian dollar pulling back against the dollar.<\/p>\n

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Oil prices rebound after US stockpile build<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Oil futures prices <\/b>are inching higher today after official data showed US crude stockpiles rose by 1.5 million barrels last week, less than expected. A strong rebound in US refining activity resulted in lower than expected build, however inventories reached a record 520.2 million barrels after eight straight weekly builds. Gasoline supplies declined by 500000 barrels. May Brent crude fell 0.3% to $56.36 a barrel on Wednesday on London\u2019s ICE Futures exchange.<\/p>\n

Market Analysis provided by IFCMarkets<\/a><\/p>

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Note:
\nThis overview has an informative and tutorial character and is published for free. All the data, included in the overview, are received from public sources, recognized as more or less reliable. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the indicated information is full and precise. Overviews are not updated. The whole information in each overview, including opinion, indicators, charts and anything else, is provided only for familiarization purposes and is not financial advice or \u0430 recommendation. The whole text and its any part, as well as the charts cannot be considered as an offer to make a deal with any asset. IFC Markets and its employees under any circumstances are not liable for any action taken by someone else during or after reading the overview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By IFCMarkets Dow closes above 21000 US stock indices closed at new record highs on Wednesday with market sentiment boosted by conciliatory tone of President Trump\u2019s Congress address Tuesday evening. The dollar continued strengthening following New York Fed President William Dudley\u2019s comment the case for a rate hike has become \u201ca lot more compelling\u201d : […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102775"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102786,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102775\/revisions\/102786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}