President Donald Trump observing the stock market break new highs, tweeted about it Thursday morning. “For all of you that have made a fortune in the markets, or seen your 401k’s rise beyond your wildest expectations, more good news is coming” he said.
The news from the Financial Markets is even better than anticipated. For all of you that have made a fortune in the markets, or seen your 401k’s rise beyond your wildest expectations, more good news is coming!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2018
A rally in tech stocks led the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 to record highs, with Amazon, Alphabet and Apple leading the gains. Investor sentiment was also boosted by the resumption of U.S.-Canada trade talks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.20% rose 60.55 points, or 0.2%, to 26,124.57, coming within 1.9% of its record close set on Jan. 26. The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.08% climbed 16.52 points, or 0.6%, to 2,914.04, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.27% added 79.65 points, or 1%, to 8,109.69, both records.
For the month of August, the Dow is up nearly 3%, the S&P 500 is up 3.5% and the Nasdaq is up 5.7%.
For all the fears of a slowdown, growth is still kicking both on the macro and micro level. Real U.S. GDP was revised to an annualized rate of 4.2% up from the initial estimate of 4.1%. Business investment, net exports and government spending were revised up, offsetting downward revisions to consumer spending and residential.
The Trump administration’s bilateral agreement with Mexico on Monday continued to underpin investor hopes that a global trade war would be averted, which would likely support investor appetite for risker assets like stocks.
Ongoing optimism over trade comes as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday the Trump administration’s objective “is to try to get Canada on board quickly.” U.S.-Canada trade talks got underway on Tuesday.