U.S. equities on Thursday set two milestones and a closing high, which achieved a remarkable finish, given the political turmoil that plagued the world a day ago but could not derail action for the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average [: DJIA] closed 0.7% to end at a milestone above 31,000, the S&P 500 index SPX,
ends at 1.5% to a milestone above 3,800, closing at about 3,804, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP,
ends well above 13,000, driven by a revival of the appetite for technology names after a poor performance for the index Wednesday after the Georgia Senate election. The Nasdaq Composite closed 2.6% to 13,067. Investors largely watched last Wednesday’s violent clash between pro-Trump protesters and focused on better-than-expected non-manufacturing reports, while the Institute for Supply Management Services Index rose and an unexpected setback in its index to 57.2 in December was, from 55.9. In addition, weekly unemployment claims were almost steady last week, declining to 787,000 from a revised 790,000 the previous week. In corporate news, Tesla Inc. TSLA,
ends on a record high and helps make CEO Elon Musk the richest man in the world, surpassing Amazon.com’s AMZN.
Jeff Bezos. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, investors will be keeping a close eye on Friday’s job report for clues about the health of the economy.
