The Dow is going for its ninth-straight daily gain. This would be the index’s longest winning streak since early 1987.
Ryan Detrick points out that the S&P 500 has now gone 50 straight days without closing up or down by more than 1%. Over the same 50 days one year ago, it happened 29 times!
We haven’t had a 1% decline for the S&P 500 for 90 straight days. That’s the longest streak since 2006, and we’re close to making it the longest streak since 1995.
The S&P 500 Tech Sector has risen for the last 14 days in a row. Yesterday, the index closed at 886.09. The all-time high from March 27, 2000 was 987.07.
The S&P 500 Financials Index had its highest close on February 20, 2007 (10 years and two days ago) at 505.55. Yesterday, it closed at 407.65.
Good news from Danaher (DHR). The company raised its quarterly dividend from 12.5 cents to 14 cents per share. The new dividend is payable on April 28 to holders of record on March 31.
It’s interesting how bearish predictions are so easily forgotten.
This is from the New York Times on October 31.
Assume, for a moment, that Donald J. Trump wins the presidency.
Some readers of this column will shudder at the thought and might even stop reading now. Others in the business world will beam, like Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
But what exactly happens the day after? To markets? To the economy?
The conventional wisdom is that, right off the bat, the stock market would fall precipitously. Simon Johnson, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist, posited that Mr. Trump’s presidency would “likely cause the stock market to crash and plunge the world into recession.”
The Dow is up more than 2,500 points since then.
It’s a tough morning for our Buy List. Shares of Wabtec (WAB) have been down as much as 7.8%.
The S&P 500 is up to a new all-time high. The index is currently over 2,361.
The U.S. consumer appears to be doing well as reflected by some recent earnings reports. Home Depot (HD), for example, just reported blow-out earnings. HD said it’s going to buy back $15 billion worth of stock, plus they’re hiking their dividend by 29%. Also, Walmart (WMT) reported its best comp store sales increase in four years. Both stocks are in the Dow.
Interestingly, since its 1981 IPO, shares of HD are up 6,000-fold. Not bad.
I’d probably take the earnings reports from Home Depot, Walmart and Amazon over any government report on U.S. consumer spending.
Bad earnings report this morning from Wabtec (WAB). The company made 81 cents per share which was 13 cents below estimates.
The maker of parts for locomotives, subways and buses posted revenue of $760 million in the period, which also fell short of Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $795.4 million.
For the year, the company reported profit of $304.9 million, or $3.34 per share. Revenue was reported as $2.93 billion.
Wabtec expects full-year earnings in the range of $3.95 to $4.15 per share.
Eddy Elfenbein is a Washington, DC-based speaker, portfolio manager and editor of the blog Crossing Wall Street. His