TheDow Jones Industrial Average didn’t quite hit 17,000, but the index did have another record-setting day as Wall Street kicked off the second half of 2014 by sending stocks soaring across the board.
The Dow Jones came within a hair of hitting the17,000milestonefor the first time Tuesday afternoon, smashing the index’s previous intra-day high by reaching16,998.70 points before retreating slightly. The index finished the day up almost 130points, for a gain of 0.8%, to close with its 12th record finish so far this year. The previous record high came June 20.
The S&P 500 also claimed its ownrecordTuesday by climbing 0.7% to 1,973, notchingits 23rd record close for 2014. Nasdaq jumped Tuesday as well, closing up bymore than 50points for a 1.1% gain that put the tech-heavy index at its highest point since early 2000, just before the dot-com crash.
The markets jumped on the prospect of improved global economic growth following positive reports on U.S. and Chinese manufacturing for June. On the Dow Jones, IBM IBM led the way for big tech stocks with an increase of about 2.9% on the day.
Netflix NFLX also rose Tuesday after an upgrade from Goldman Sachs sent the company’s shares up more than7%, and sports camera-maker GoPro GPRO traded at more than double the $24 its shares sold for in the company’sIPO last week.
Dow Jones was up by 1.5% in the first half of 2014, experiencing muchslower growth than fellow major indices the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, which increased by 6% and 5.5%, respectively, over the same period.
