S&P 500 finally eclipses May 2015 record
More than 15 long months of waiting ended Monday when the Standard & Poor's 500 closed at a new high, finally eclipsing its old record in May 2015 and giving investors reason to hope there are even more gains ahead.
The S&P rose 7.26 points, or 0.3%, to 2137.16, topping its past peak of 2132.80 on May 21, 2015.
But it made the trip into new-record territory alone. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 80 points, or 0.4%, to 18,227, which was a new 2016 high and left it just 85 points from its record close of 18,312.39. The Nasdaq composite added a little to the mix when it briefly crossed 5000. But the tech-packed index faded and it ended up 0.6% for the day at 4989 -- also a 2016 high but 4.4% short of its 2015 record close.
Wall Street kicked off the new week by building on a monster rally Friday when the better-than-expected June jobs report soothed concerns about a slowing U.S. economy and potential fallout from last month's surprise "Brexit" vote.
The government reported Friday that 287,000 jobs were created in June, far above the 180,000 estimate economists had been expecting. The robust jobs report will go a long way towards reducing U.S. recession fears on Wall Street, economists said.
The U.S. stock market has mounted an impressive recovery since the United Kingdom roiled global financial markets by voting on June 23 to exit the European Union. In the two sessions following the vote, the Dow tumbled a total of 871 points, or 4.8%. The S&P 500 suffered even more, losing 5.3%.
But easing concerns about how much "Brexit" would affect the U.S. economy helped more than erase those losses. Coming into Monday, the Dow and S&P 500 were up 5.9% and 6.5%, respectively, off their post-Brexit lows.
Now the focus has shifted off Brexit to more traditional fundamental drivers of the market such as economic data and corporate earnings. On the profit front, Alcoa unofficially kicks off earnings season tonight with it second-quarter earnings report. Overall, the news from corporate America is not expected to be good, with analysts estimating S&P 500 corporate profits will be down 5.2% overall from a year earlier. On the bright side, starting in the current third quarter, earnings are expected to finally start improving.
Craig Johnson, technical market strategist at Piper Jaffray, told clients Monday morning that stocks "continue to climb the proverbial wall of worry as global macro concerns weigh heavily on investors. " And while he sees some near-term risk, Johnson continues "to believe the secular bull market remains in tact."
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index jumped 4% to 15,708.82 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 1.5% to 20,865.10. The Shanghai composite index rose 0.2% to 2994.92.
European markets also rallied as Germany’s DAX was up 1.7%, France’s CAC 40 jumped 1.5% and Britain’s FTSE 100 was 1% higher.
Contributing: Adam Shell