Ignoring Trump speech, US Dow index hit another peak

 The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a fresh record of more than 21,000 on Wednesday, one day after President Donald Trump gave a speech expected to list details on an upcoming tax cuts.

Those details never materialised, but that hasn’t stopped Wall Street trades from continuing to make risky trades. Despite the lack of deals, markets have been bullish for the past 35 record breaking sessions.

“This rally is sentiment and momentum driven. It’s difficult to find a negative statement for traders to react,” said Nadi Bargouti, managing director, asset management, Emirates Investment Bank.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record of 21,009 a few minutes after the opening bell. The S&P 500 index was 0.81 per cent higher at 2,382.85.

Despite the lack of details on the president’s plans to boost infrastructure spending or implement tax cuts, traders are now moving their attention to Federal Reserve vice-chairman William Dudley statements that it was more compelling for the central bank to hike rates in their March meeting

Limited upside

“Lack of details in the Trump speech won’t be able to stimulate massive rally in US equities,” Naeem Aslam, Chief Market Analyst, at ThinkMarkets told Gulf News.

“Most of the indices would continue to remain higher. It won’t be a surprise if markets continued to make new records,” Aslam added.

Elsewhere in the world, the UK’s FTSE 100 Index was up more than a per cent at 7,364.92. The German DAX index was also up at 12,025.55. Locally, the Dubai Financial Market General Index closed 0.27 per cent lower at 3,620.68, while the Abu Dhabi Securities General Index closed 0.38 per cent higher at 4,569.53.

The dollar index edged higher, hitting its highest level in six weeks. The dollar index was 0.68 per cent higher at 101.810.

“I believe that the dollar should now strengthen over the near-term, not because of President Trump’s speech but because Federal Reserve officials are providing ongoing clues to the market that a possible interest rate rise in March is not something to completely rule out of the equation,” Jameel Ahmad, VP of Market Research at FXTM said

source : gulfnews