Dow rocks the record books
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[ Music: One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock, rock, Five, six, seven o’clock, eight o’clock, rock, Nine, ten, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock, rock, We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight. . . ]
MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: That song by Bill Haley & The Comets topped the charts in the summer of ’55.
You’d have to go back that far to find the last time the Dow Jones Industrial Average has had the kind of winning streak it’s on right now. The Dow has risen in 21 of the last 24 sessions.
Yesterday it set another record high, marking its most bullish period in nearly 52 years.
High earnings and a strong government report on factory orders boosted investor optimism.
Diane Swonk is the Chief Economist at Mesirow Financial. She says there are two reasons for the rally.
DIANE SWONK: One is that earnings are surprising on the upside which has given the market an extra lift. Everyone was expecting earnings to slow, but they’ve slowed much less than people expected. The other issue is that there’s a bit of a tailwind. We sat 18 quarters in a row where we saw double-digit profit gains and yet the market barely responded. So frankly at this stage of the game, the market is still pretty well-priced.
This year the Dow has set new records 17 times, and yesterday was one of those times: The Dow gained 75 points to end at 13,211.
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