The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared past a major milestone on Tuesday, crossing the 30,000-point mark for the first time ever after President Donald Trump gave the green light to the formal transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden’s administration.
Shortly after the noon on Wall Street, the 30-share index was up 1.69 percent at 30,092.53.
The broader S 500 index – a proxy for the health of retirement and college savings accounts – was up 1.57 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index was 0.99 percent to the plus side.
President Donald Trump marked the occasion with a spur of the moment White House press conference, telling reporters, “We’ve never broken 30,000. And that’s despite everything that’s taken place with the pandemic.”
Describing 30,000 as “a sacred number” Trump went on to list other heights the stock market has hit on his watch.
“Nobody thought they’d ever see it. That’s the ninth time since the beginning of 2020 and it’s the 48th time that we’ve broken records during the Trump administration,” he said.
Monday’s record-setting moment was set in motion after Trump said on Monday that the head of the General Services Administration could go ahead with a transition to Biden’s administration – turning a page on a fraught political moment in the nation’s history that had weighed on investor sentiment.
Trump confirmed his approval of the transition with a tweet in which he also pledged to “keep up the good fight”.
Meanwhile, Biden’s incoming cabinet is taking shape.
The president-elect is reportedly tapping former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as his treasury secretary – a crucial role always, but especially now given the fragile state of the nation’s economic recovery and fresh financial perils posed by new business-sapping restrictions to curb record-breaking COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations.
To date, the coronavirus has killed 257,671 Americans, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
State and local governments are urging caution before the Thanksgiving holiday. California, Ohio, North Carolina, and New York are imposing new restrictions.
The nation’s economic recovery was already downshifting as nearly $3 trillion in federal government virus relief aid faded and key programmes expired.
Economists have been sounding the alarm, urging more stimulus to help struggling businesses and households as well as state and local governments.
New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio warned on Tuesday that the city needs stimulus aid from the federal government to stay above water.
“If there’s not a stimulus, the state of New York is going to be in dire, dire shape, and, unfortunately, might have to pass on cuts to localities,” de Blasio told a news conference.
More red flags are being waived by the airline industry – a sector of vital importance to national security that has been financially gutted by the pandemic.
Globally, airlines will lose another $39bn next year on top of the $118bn they are expected to bleed out this year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday.
IATA had forecast back in June $100bn in losses over the two years but with surging coronavirus infections and shutdowns, it upgraded that number to $157bn on Tuesday.
Among stocks to watch on Tuesday:
Tesla Inc shares were up 4.4 percent in afternoon trading on Wall Street, after the electric vehicle maker topped $500bn in market value at the open of trading on Tuesday.
On the retail front, as we approach Black Friday weekend, shares of Abercrombie Fitch Co were down 2.11 percent. The apparel retailer outdid Wall Street’s expectations for quarterly profit and sales after it cut costs and saw a spike in online sales, but said it sees net sales in the fourth quarter down 5 percent to 10 percent.
Tiffany Co’s shares were hovering near unchanged after it also beat forecasts for quarterly profit. The US jeweller, which is being bought by French luxury giant LVMH, benefitted from a more than 70 percent rise in sales in China and recovering demand at home.
