While you were sleeping: Tax overhaul optimism pushes Dow past 24,000

Wall Street rallied, sending the Dow and S&P 500 to record highs, amid signs the Trump administration is moving a step closer to delivering on its tax reform promise.

At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 24,000 for the first time, surging 331.67 points, or 1.4%, to 24,272.35.

The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.7% to 6873.97, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.8% to 2647.58.

It's the fifth time this year the Dow has hit a 1000-point milestone. The latest one has come 30 trading sessions since it closed above 23,000.

"The market is beginning to price in a higher certainty of tax reform happening and that is the big driver today," Mark Heppenstall, chief investment officer at Penn Mutual Asset Management in Horsham, Pennsylvania, told Reuters.

A 3.2% gain by Goldman Sachs led the Dow higher, with JP Morgan Chase rising 1.6% American Express adding 1.3%. Bucking the trend, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson were the only declining stocks.

Kroger shares jump
Kroger shares jumped 9.4% after the supermarket chain reported third-quarter sales and earnings that exceeded analysts expectations, offering optimism it can stave off intensifying industry competition.

"Based on the wall of worry over Amazon, Wal-mart and Aldi, fundamental concerns over Kroger's competitive position proved to be overblown," Pivotal Research Group analyst Ajay Jain told Reuters, noting that the company's year-over-year earnings in the period improved for the first time in four quarters.

"Restock Kroger is off to a great start," CEO Rodney McMullen said in a statement. "Customers are recognising our efforts to redefine the customer experience and rewarding us with their loyalty. We continue to accelerate our digital and ecommerce offerings, to grow our brands, to lower prices for customers, and to invest in our associates.

"We had our best ever Black Friday results for general merchandise, led by record sales at Fred Meyer," McMullen noted. "We remain confident in our ability to continue to grow identical supermarket store sales and market share for the balance of the year and in 2018."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index fell 0.3% as did Germany's DAX Index. France's CAC 40 Index dropped 0.5% and the UK's FTSE 100 Index gave up 0.9%.

Meanwhile, US oil prices rose slightly, up 0.2% to $US57.40 a barrel. after Opec and other top producers including Russia extended an agreement to curb their output to the end of 2018 in an effort to reduce the global glut.

(BusinessDesk)