The Dow Ends 2020 at a Record As Bulls Continue Their Stampede in the Final Day By Investing.com

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The Dow ended the year fueled by the pandemic at an all-time high on Thursday, as bullish sentiment on Wall Street continued on the final day of trading, and analysts touted more of the same in 2021.

He was up 0.65%, or 196 points, ending the year with more than 15%. It rose 0.26%, while adding 0.14%.

“In 2020, equity investors experienced the final stage of the longest bull market in history, the shortest bear market on record and a tremendous rally that marks the beginning of a new bull market … Although we don’t expect 2021 to be so rugged as 2020, we expect the stock market to continue bullish. ” Wells fargo (NYSE 🙂 said in a note.

The positive end to the last day of trading on Wall Street was led by a surge in finance, with Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ :), MSCI Inc (NYSE 🙂 and Aon (NYSE 🙂 among the highest gains.

Energy, which is down about 35% for the year, gave up some of its gains from the previous day as oil prices fell on concerns of new restrictions as the new strain of the coronavirus continues to stoke concerns about energy sources. oil demand outlook.

“Because the variants spread more rapidly, they could lead to more cases and put even more pressure on our already overstretched health care systems,” Dr. Henry Walke, the Centers’ Covid Incident Manager, said Wednesday. for Disease Control and Prevention.

The ongoing spike in cases did not appear in the latest weekly jobless claims report, but analysts expect the impact to show up in the December non-farm payroll report next week.

The number of Americans who applied for unemployment insurance unexpectedly fell by 19,000 to 787,000, compared with economists’ forecast of an increase to 835,000.

“While the improvement does not fit the narrative of intensifying COVID restrictions … given that initial claims increased between the survey weeks of December and November … we see a high probability of a negative payroll impression,” he said Jefferies (NYSE 🙂 on a note.

Tech is up more than 17% from its March lows, showing more of the same resistance to make a positive close on the day when the Fab 5 bounced off the lows.

Microsoft (NASDAQ :), Facebook (NASDAQ 🙂 and Google (NASDAQ 🙂 closed green, while Amazon.com (NASDAQ 🙂 and Apple (NASDAQ 🙂 closed lower.

Digital west (NASDAQ :), increased 12% on expectations of a smaller memory product offering after Samsung (KS 🙂 and Hynix set conservative DRAM spending targets for 2021.

In other news, Tesla (NASDAQ 🙂 added 1.5% to its earnings the day before to hit a new high as investors continued to bet on the electric car maker delivering better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales when reporting deliveries. next week.

Tesla has accrued more than 750% of earnings for the year, ending the year at a high after its recent addition to the S&P 500 after four consecutive quarters of growth.