While you were sleeping: UPDATED Dow surges 303 points past 21,000

Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 300 points to cross the 21,000 milestone for the first time, as investors embraced optimism from President Trump and US Federal Reserve officials.

The rise in the Dow has been rapid since the presidential election on November 8, passing through 19,000 and reaching 20,000 just over a month ago on January 25 

The rally came after Mr Trump struck an optimistic tone in his speech to the Congress, though it contained little detail, and comments by Fed officials that an interest rate rise copuld come in March.

"The case for monetary policy tightening has become a lot more compelling," New York Fed President William Dudley told CNN.

San Francisco Fed President John Williams agreed.

"A rate increase is very much on the table for serious consideration at our March meeting," he said in a speech.

Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen is slated to speak on Friday.

"Williams and Dudley are strongly signalling that fact that March is a live meeting, and that's occurring against the backdrop of consistently strong [economic] numbers," Richard Franulovich, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corporation in New York, told Reuters.

Mr Trump's keenly-awaited address did little to dampen the mood.

"Fed speakers trump Trump," Richard McGuire, the head of rates strategy at Rabobank International in London, Bloomberg reported.

Mr Trump's speech lacked "fresh content for the market to trade off, with big tax cuts, deregulation and an infrastructure plan being mentioned but not supported by any details," Mr McGuire noted.

"Given this, all focus instead turned to the slew of hawkish rhetoric from Fed speakers."

Indexes at record highs
At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 303.31 points,or 1.5%, to 21,115.55.

The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.35% to 5904.03 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced 1.4% to 2395.96.

The three benchmark indexes touched fresh record intraday and closing highs.

Gains in JPMorgan Chase and American Express shares, up 3.3% and 2.2% respectively, led the advance in the Dow. Apple also contributed, rising 2%.

In this bullish environment, Snap Inc will price its initial public offering after the US stock market closes.

The owner of Snapchat was on track to price its IPO at $US17 a share, above its target of between $US14 and $US16, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the offering.

Bucking the trend, Intel shares fell 1.3% while Wal-Mart shares shed 0.5%, the only two stocks in the Dow dropping in early afternoon trading.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the session with a gain of 1.4% from the previous close. The UK's FTSE 100 Index added 1.6% to close at a record high, Germany's DAX Index increased 2%, while France's CAC 40 Index strengthened 2.1%.

European stocks are back in favour. Since October global funds have made a "significant rotation" out of US stocks into Europe excluding the UK and into Japanese equities, equity strategists at HSBC Holdings wrote, Bloomberg reported.

"This rising optimism towards Europe suggests investors are relatively relaxed regarding the political uncertainty facing Europe over the next 12 months," HSBC strategists including Amit Shrivastava wrote.

(BusinessDesk)