The major indices closed at record highs again today. The DOW was up 22 points to finish at 23,539, the S&P 500 gained 8 to 2,587, and the NASDAQ was 49 points higher to 6,744 at the closing bell. It is the ninth straight week of gains for the DOW and the S&P 500 with the former at its 56th record high of the year.
The upside hero today was AAPL after its strong report and new highs on strong sales of the new iPhone X. In addition, HD bounced back from yesterday’s housing market stock selloff and WMT was strong as well. In addition to AAPL, the NASDAQ was led upward by AMZN which turned an early loss into a current gain, plus ISRG was at a new high of 386.
Bond yields were lower on a weak jobs report. The 10-year Treasury Note was at 2.34% while the 2-year currently resides at 1.62%. This means that the yield curve continues to narrow; now down to .72%. Looks like the Fed is going to raise rates next month despite a lack of wage inflation.
The dollar was stronger with the Euro down to 1.16 while the Japanese yen was at 114.2 to the dollar. Gold was lower to $1,270 an ounce on the greenback strength while crude oil was up to $55.69…the highest price since July 2015 on increased output cuts.
Earnings projections for 2017 in the S&P are expected to be up by 11% according to current estimates. For 2018 the number is also around 11%.
The overall bull market is now in its 102nd straight month. This compares to the average length of 59 months for the 11 bull markets since 1949. It is now the second longest bull market in history trailing only the 1987-2000 run.
Donald M. Selkin
Don Selkin is the Chief Market Strategist at Newbridge Securities Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC and provides the Fair Value analysis for CNBC each morning. The commentary provided in this Market Letter is intended to provide timely market analysis and should not be considered a research report. This Market Letter may contain, and is limited to: Discussions of broad based indices; Commentaries on economic, political or market conditions; Technical analyses concerning the demand and supply for a sector, index or industry based in trading volume and price; Statistical summaries of multiple companies’ financial data, including listings of current ratings; and, Recommendations regarding increasing or decreasing holdings in particular industries or securities. This Market Letter does not make a financial or investment recommendation or otherwise promotes a product or service of the firm. This Market Letter contains only news, facts, and commentary on information previously reported from a news source believed to be accurate and reliable by the author. These news sources include the following: Bloomberg Financial, Reuters, and the Associated Press. These are excerpts from Don Selkin’s Daily Market Notes, abbreviated and updated with permission from the author.