Dow record high. Check. S&P 500 record high. Check. Nasdaq at 2014 high. Check. The U.S. stock market continues to defy the skeptics, and enters November buzzing at fresh highs. Indeed, Wall Street kicks off September in a new high state of mind.
Riding the wave of a resurgent U.S. economy, which grew at a 3.5% pace in the third quarter, and a very strong corporate earning season in the third quarter (76% of S&P 500 companies have topped forecasts so far, on track for its third-best quarterly “beat” rate in 20 years, according to Thomson Reuters data) U.S. stocks are firing on all cylinders again.
Stocks have also gotten a boost since mid-October from a dissipation of fears related to the Ebola virus, which hasn’t seen a dangerous spread in the USA as feared. The ability of U.S. companies to churn out solid earnings and the economy to grow at a faster clip the past two quarters has also eased worries about weaker growth around the globe infecting the USA.
As November kicks off, investors are closely watching Tuesday’s midterm Congressional elections as well as the release of the October jobs report on Friday. In pre-market futures trading, the stock market was slightly lower, with the Dow Jones industrial average down 26 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index off more than 2 points, or 0.1%