Stocks rose for a second day on Tuesday as investors cheered the Trump administration’s move to begin the transition process as well as President-elect Joe Biden’s potential pick for Treasury secretary.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded higher by 436 points, or 1.5%, and breached the 30,000 level for the first time. The S&P 500 climbed 1.5%, putting it on pace for a record closing high, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1%.
Boeing and Chevron rose 3.9% and 3.3%, respectively, to lead the Dow higher. Energy was the best-performing sector in the S&P 500, rising 4.2%. Financials, meanwhile, advanced 2.7%.
Investors continued to add exposure to beaten-down value names on Tuesday. The iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF (IWD) gained 1.9% and outperformed its growth counterpart, which advanced 0.9%. The small-cap Russell 2000 hit an all-time high.
General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy told President-elect Joe Biden that the Trump administration is making federal resources available for his transition into office.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he approved of the move, but said he will “keep up the good fight” even as his reelection campaign has so far failed to win any legal victories that would invalidate votes for Biden.
Stocks were coming off a strong session on Monday piled into reopening trades amid vaccine optimism. AstraZeneca said interim analysis showed its vaccine has an average efficacy of 70%, following strong results from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
News also broke Monday that Joe Biden will nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to be Treasury Secretary. Many view Yellen as a market-friendly pick considering that she oversaw a long economic expansion with historically low-interest rates and she’s likely to push for further fiscal stimulus.
“I think this is a strong sign that Biden will be focused on rebuilding the economy vs. pursuing aggressive regulatory policy,” said Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at Raymond James. “She will be an effective voice of more fiscal support vs. someone who was seen as a partisan … I would say that is a positive development for the market, but more importantly for the economy as a whole.”
Still, investors weighed vaccine news against a resurgence in new coronavirus cases, which prompted some Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to lower their near-term economic outlook.
The U.S. continues to notch record Covid-19 infections, with the national seven-day average of daily new cases hitting 170,855 on Sunday, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.
U.S. markets will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and will have a short session on Friday.
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