S&P 500 Hits New Record High with Best Performance Since 1998

The main indices of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) continued to show a mostly strong performance on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 index registering its 34th record close this year, and while the Nasdaq declined and failed to continue to the record breaking activity, the Dow Jones came close to another record high.

Positive economic data, including a positive ADP private payrolls report led to an improved investors’ sentiment within the stock market, and the energy sector, as well as consumer staples, and financial stocks provided support for Wall Street in the last day of June.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 210.22 points, or 0.61%, to settle at 34,502.51 points, moving closer to its all-time high closing level of 34,777.76, which was registered on May 7.

The S&P 500 rose by 5.70 points, or 0.13%, to finish at 4,297.50 points.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index closed lower by 24.38 points, or 0.17%, at 14,503.95 points, after rising for two consecutive sessions, since the beginning of the week.

In June, the Dow lost 0.1%, and S&P 500 gained 2.2%, while the Nasdaq leveled up by 5.5%.

As for the second quarter (Q2), all the indices recorded their fifth consecutive quarterly gains, increasing by 4.6%, 8.2%, and 9.5%, in the previous order.

All the main indices also recorded large gains over the first six months of the year, or the first half of 2021, with the Dow and Nasdaq surging by 12.7% and 12.5%, respectively, and S&P 500 rising by 14.5%.

Much attention has been given to jobs reports and employment data as a determining factor in the future direction of monetary policy and interest rates, with the Federal Reserve vowing to begin tapering asset purchases after seeing substantial further progress towards price stability and full employment targets.

The large gains by the S&P 500 index makes its year-to-date performance, the best since 1998.

Meanwhile, a new comer to the Wall Street, Krispy Kreme, has priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $17 per share, below the expected range of $21-24 a share.

The company, famous for its doughnuts, is set to offer 29.4 million outstanding shares for $500 million.

Wider rollout of coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccinations, re-opening the economy, a decline in the number of new cases and increased hopes for economic recovery from the pandemic supported by high growth rates and positive economic indicators are believes to have provided the base for Wall Street’s recent gains, especially amid a relative decline in Treasury bond yields.