Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Score New Closing Records on Tech, Energy Rally

New York (Dec 13)  Wall Street scored another trifecta of record closes on Tuesday as a rally in the energy and tech sectors drove gains across benchmark indexes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.58%, scoring a new record of 19,910. The blue-chip index is within range of the psychologically important and never-been-seen 20,000 level. The S&P 500 gained 0.65% to trade at 2,271, and the Nasdaq climbed 0.95% to 5,463.

The Dow ended Tuesday with its 16th record closing high since Election Day and seventh record close in a row. The blue-chip index has been on a roll since President-elect Donald Trump won the general election a month ago and began to pick candidates for cabinet positions that many presumed would be friendly to Wall Street. For example, Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, has been nominated as Treasury secretary and ExxonMobil (XOM) CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

Tillerson's nomination boosted the energy sector on Tuesday even as a surge in crude oil prices faded. Energy also held higher after the International Energy Agency raised its forecast for demand this year. The watchdog anticipates global demand growth of 1.4 million barrels a day, an increase of 120,000 from its previous forecast, as strong third-quarter growth in the U.S. and improved forecasts in China inspired a more bullish outlook. The agency sees growth of 1.3 million barrels a day in 2017.

The IEA also anticipates global inventories to begin to fall in the first half of next year thanks to a production cap agreement among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other non-OPEC producers. Non-OPEC producers, including Russia, agreed to cut oil output by 558,000 barrels a day next year, on top of OPEC's commitment to reduce by 1.2 million barrels a day.

Source: TheStreet