US Indexes Continue Gains, Closing Higher Tuesday

S&P 500 closes at new record high of 3,192.52

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Dec 17, 2019
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 28,267.16 on Tuesday with a gain of 31.27 points or 0.11%. The S&P 500 closed at 3,192.52 for a gain of 1.07 points or 0.03%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 8,823.36 for a gain of 9.13 points or 0.10%. The VIX Volatility Index was higher at 12.31 for a gain of 0.17 points or 1.40%.

Tuesday’s market movers

U.S. indexes continued their gains Tuesday with another day of closing highs. Investors are watching stock results through the end of the year, with momentum potentially helping all three major indexes to post record annual gains for 2019.

In the S&P 500, the consumer discretionary and financial sectors led gains. In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the following stocks led gains:

In the Dow Jones, Boeing (BA, Financial) was also on watch on Tuesday with the stock falling 0.015% after the company announced it would halt 737 MAX production.

Economic reports affecting market trading included the following:

  • Building permits increased 1.4% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.482 million and housing starts increased 3.2% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.365 million.
  • The Federal Reserve released its Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report. In November, industrial production increased 1.1% following a decrease of 0.9%. Year over year, industrial production decreased 0.8%. Manufacturing production increased 1.1% in November following a decrease of 0.7%. Year over year, manufacturing production decreased 0.8%. Capacity utilization increased to 77.3% in November from 76.6%.
  • The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed job openings of 7.267 million in October.

Small-cap stocks

In small caps, the Russell 2000 closed at 1,657.37 for a gain of 7.43 points or 0.45%. The S&P 600 closed at 1,015.72 for a gain of 7.79 points or 0.77%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Growth Index closed at 10,572.51 for a gain of 35.20 points or 0.33%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Value Index closed at 9,931.60 for a gain of 64.59 points or 0.65%.

Other notable indexes

Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 2,045.09 for a gain of 6.63 points or 0.33%; the S&P 100 at 1,425.14 for a gain of 1.29 points or 0.091%; the Nasdaq 100 at 8,575.70 for a gain of 5.37 points or 0.063%; the Russell 3000 at 1,870.48 for a gain of 1.17 points or 0.062%; the Russell 1000 at 1,763.06 for a gain of 0.61 points or 0.035%; the Wilshire 5000 at 32,619.03 for a gain of 22.62 points or 0.069%; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 750.57 for a gain of 1.85 points or 0.25%.

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