Dow soars 315 points, rips above 24,000 as chances of Senate tax bill passing increase

[Doug Ster]

Hillary would be making excuses and stealing the money. Markets would
go down.

The Dow and S&P 500 both hit all-time highs on Thursday.
Wall Street awaited a Senate vote on tax reform.
The Nasdaq composite tried to recover from sharp losses in the
previous session.

Stocks rallied on Thursday as the possibility of the Senate passing a
bill aimed at overhauling the U.S. tax code increased.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged 315 points, breaking above
24,000 for the first time, with Goldman Sachs leading advancers on the
30-stock index.

The S&P 500 reached an all-time high, advancing 0.8 percent, with
industrials and financials among the best-performing sectors. L Brands
and Kroger were the best-performing stocks in the index.

The Nasdaq composite rose 0.7 percent, rebounding from a 2 percent
decline in the previous session. Tech giants like Facebook, Amazon,
and Apple all traded higher.

Symbol
Name
Price
Change
%Change
DJIA DOW JONES INDU AVERAGE NDX 24245.52 304.84
1.27%
S&P 500 S&P 500 Index 2647.58 21.51 0.82%
NASDAQ NASDAQ Composite 6873.97 49.63 0.73%
"This tax-reform bill is not just about" potentially lowering taxes
said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade. "It's also
a psychological factor that Congress can get something done. That
would be a positive."

Sen. John McCain said Thursday he would support the bill, making it
more likely that the GOP-led Senate will pass its bill. The Senate is
expected to vote later on Thursday. If the upper chamber's bill
passes, the House and Senate would have to work on a new bill they can
send to President Donald Trump.

Tax reform was one of Trump's main talking points during his campaign
last year. After he won, expectations of lower corporate taxes grew in
the stock market, helping equities jump to record highs.

But Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, said
lower corporate taxes may not help as much as investors may think.
"The effective tax rate among S&P 500 companies is already 26 percent.
A 20 percent corporate tax rate would help, but it would not be as big
a boon to large companies as it would be to small companies," he said.

Traders celebrate on the main trading floor of the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) as the Dow Jones Industrial Average passes the 20,000
mark shortly after the opening of the trading session in New York,
U.S., January 25, 2017.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Traders celebrate on the main trading floor of the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) as the Dow Jones Industrial Average passes the 20,000
mark shortly after the opening of the trading session in New York,
U.S., January 25, 2017.
The Russell 2000, which tracks small-cap stocks, hit a record high on
Wednesday and is up nearly 2 percent this week. Small caps tend to
benefit more from the tax cut as most get their revenues domestically

The major indexes were coming off a bifurcated session in which sharp
gains in bank shares were offset by a rollover in tech stocks.

Tech was "being used as a source of funds for investors wishing to
increase positions in sectors more likely to benefit from a potential
tax reform," said Michael Shaoul, chairman and CEO of Marketfield
Asset Management.

Thursday also marked the last trading day of November. The Dow was on
track to post its first eight-month winning streak since 1995. The S&P
500 was on track to post its longest monthly winning streak since
2007. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, was headed for a slight monthly loss.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/us-stocks-dow-record-high-tax-reform-senate.html