Investing.com – Wall Street headed higher on Tuesday with the Nasdaq Composite hitting a record high of 5,512.37 points and the Dow Jones making yet another attack at 20,000 points.
At 11:17AM ET (16:17GMT), the Dow Jones gained 25 points, or 0.13%, the S&P 500 rose 6 points or 0.27%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded up 37 points, or 0.68%.
A string of positive economic data was insufficient to take the blue-chip index to its highly anticipated psychological level of 20,000 points on Tuesday, not to mention back to the next technical resistance at its all-time high of 19,987.63 reached on December 20.
Data for December from the Conference Board released on Tuesday showed that consumer confidence hit its highest level since no less than August 2001.
Separately, the real estate market continued to show strength as housing prices registered a 5.1% increase in October. The advance was in line with consensus expectations, though the 0.6% month-on-month reading settled slightly above expectations.
There was also positive news in regional readings on the manufacturing sector in December from both the Richmond and Dallas Fed.
Mimicking the performance in blue-chip stocks, the dollar also crawled back towards a 14-year peak against major rivals that was reached last week at 103.62.
Company news was mixed with shares in Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) gaining nearly 2% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its drug to treat spinal muscular atrophy. Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IONS), that actually discovered the medication licensed to Biogen, shot up more than 4%.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) rose around 1.5% after announcing that it had the best-ever holiday season ever after shipping more than one billion items worldwide through its Prime membership program.
In downside news, Seattle Genetics Inc (NASDAQ:SGEN) tanked more than 14% after the FDA imposed a clinical hold on testing for its experimental cancer drug due to the death of four test subjects.
Fred's (NASDAQ:FRED) slipped 1% lower after invoking a shareholder rights plan designed to prevent a hostile takeover. That came after Alden Global Capital took an almost 25% stake in the firm.
Meanwhile, oil prices were higher on Tuesday, rising towards the strongest level in a year-and-a-half amid optimism that major oil producers will stick to their agreement to cut production starting in January.
OPEC secretary general Mohammed Barkindo indicated that the independent committee who will monitor compliance by major oil producers will meet on January 13.
U.S. crude futures gained 1.32% to $53.72 by 11:24AM ET (15:24GMT), while Brent oil traded up 1.79% to $56.62.