The Dow closed above 28,000 for the first time ever in a last minute gush of buying.
Wall Street once again had that warm and fuzzy feeling - hoping that a U.S.-China trade deal is coming together after optimistic comments from two members of the Trump administration.
The Dow wasn’t alone in setting another record close. So did the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
Like it or not - this market remains fixated on the unresolved trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, says Mercadien Asset Management President Ken Kamen.
“To me that’s been a game of, the kids game of ‘yeah/boo’. It’s so hard. It’s been so much of that up and down. I’d like to see it done. I’m a little disappointed that right now we’ve created this new things called a phase one deal. It’s going to be going after minor stuff so we can get pass this, so everyone can call victory. It seems that we’ve all gone through a lot of heart ache for the last year or so to wind up where we could of been if they would have just done this behind the scene and quietly.”
Healthcare stocks got a boost from the White House. President Trump unveiled new rules to increase price transparency among hospitals, group health plans and health insurers. He also said he will be giving states the right to buy prescription drugs from other countries. Shares of health care insurance companies like UnitedHealth surged after his announcement.
J.C. Penny posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss as the struggling department store operator experiments with new store formats to drive traffic. Analysts say the 117-year-old retailer still has a long road to recovery ahead.
Sticking with consumers…government retail sales figures showed a rebound in October. But spending on clothing and big-ticket items slowed, which could indicate consumers are feeling cautious into the key holiday shopping season. Fear of such, caused appliance maker Whirlpool to be one of the biggest decliners in the S&P 500.
One other piece of economic data to note: Factory output last month saw its biggest drop in nearly a year and a half.