The Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t quite hit 17,000, but the index did have another record-setting day as Wall Street kicked off the second half of 2014 by sending stocks soaring across the board.
The Dow Jones came within a hair of hitting the 17,000 milestone for the first time Tuesday afternoon, smashing the index’s previous intra-day high by reaching 16,998.70 points before retreating slightly. The index finished the day up almost 130 points, for a gain of 0.8%, to close with its 12th record finish so far this year. The previous record high came June 20.
The S&P 500 also claimed its own record Tuesday by climbing 0.7% to 1,973, notching its 23rd record close for 2014. Nasdaq jumped Tuesday as well, closing up by more than 50 points for a 1.1% gain that put the tech-heavy index at its highest point since early 2000, just before the dot-com crash.
The markets jumped on the prospect of improved global economic growth following positive reports on U.S. and Chinese manufacturing for June. On the Dow Jones, IBM (IBM) led the way for big tech stocks with an increase of about 2.9% on the day.
Netflix (NFLX) also rose Tuesday after an upgrade from Goldman Sachs sent the company’s shares up more than 7%, and sports camera-maker GoPro (GPRO) traded at more than double the $24 its shares sold for in the company’s IPO last week.
Dow Jones was up by 1.5% in the first half of 2014, experiencing much slower growth than fellow major indices the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, which increased by 6% and 5.5%, respectively, over the same period.
