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The Dow rose to a new record high Friday, extending a post-election US equity market rally propelled in part by anticipation of president-elect Donald Trump’s economic growth agenda.
The blue-chip index piled on 1% to end the day at 44,296.51, narrowly overtaking a record set earlier this month.
The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.4% to 5,969.34, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.2% at 19,003.65.
“The trading most of this week has been influenced by the growth agenda,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital Management.
Major indices have been at or near record territory since the US elections, with investors betting that Trump’s programme of tax cuts and regulatory scale-back would more than offset the drag from expected tariff increases.
Market watchers have been cheered this week by a broadening of the rally beyond the tech names that dominated earlier in the year.
Analysts have also noted that the year-end period is typically a seasonally strong stretch for equities.
Friday’s winners included smaller publicly traded companies, while industrial and financial companies outperformed other sectors.
The Dow was led by Boeing, which won 4.1%, while high-flying artificial intelligence player Nvidia was the biggest loser, shedding 3.2%.
Among individual companies, Gap rocketed up 12.8% as it raised some of its full-year projections after reporting higher third-quarter profits. Chief executive Richard Dickson said the company was making progress on its “brand reinvigoration playbook” after a difficult stretch.
Ross Stores, another retailer, rose 2.2% after reporting a 9% rise in quarterly profits to US$488 million. Results benefited from lower freight costs, although sales were dented by US hurricanes during the quarter.