Major U.S. stock indexes close at record highs
Markets rising in anticipation of better corporate earnings to come, analysts say
Another day, another series of record highs for major U.S. stock indexes.
The Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor's 500 and the Nasdaq composite index all finished Monday at new high closes, extending a run they have been on in recent weeks.
The Dow gained 59.58 points or 0.3 per cent, to 18,636.05. The S&P 500 climbed 6.10 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 2,190.15, while the Nasdaq rose by 29.12 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 5,262.02.
Chemical and machinery companies were the big gainers among U.S. stocks, while investors sold government bonds and utility and phone companies, which they had turned to earlier in the year in a hunt for safer investments
Analysts said markets are rising in anticipation of better corporate earnings to come.
"If those earnings don't come, we have the Wile E. Coyote moment where we're off the cliff ... and we're gonna fall," Brian Nick, chief investment strategist for TIAA Investments, told The Associated Press.
"We're moving from an interest-rate-driven bull market to an earnings-driven secular bull market," Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James Financial in St. Petersburg, Fla., told Reuters. He expects earnings will improve "over the next few years."
On Bay Street, the S&P/TSX composite index gained 29.57 points to 14,777.02 as the price of oil moved higher.
The September crude contract was up $1.25 at $45.74 US per barrel.
Performance Sports Group Ltd., which owns the Bauer and Easton sports brand, saw its shares drop $2.09, or 46.44 per cent, to $2.41 after the company said it couldn't file an audited annual report with regulators on time. The company said that failure puts it in a default position under its credit agreements.
With files from The Associated Press and Reuters