Investing.com – Stocks surged Wednesday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped to a new closing high in a holiday-shortened trading day.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 index also finished at new closing and 52-week highs. The Nasdaq Composite ended at a new closing high.
The Dow industrials broke their last record close, set on Oct. 3. Wednesday's rally was fueled by gains in Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:CSCO), pharmaceutical giants Merck (NYSE:MRK) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:NYSE:JNJ) and McDonalds (MCD).
The rally may have been simply pre-Independence Day enthusiasm or investor optimism global trade disputes will get resolved.
The Dow ended the day up 0.67%. The S&P 500 was up 0.77% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.75%. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.74%.
Stocks and bonds stopped trading at 1 PM ET (17:00 GMT), futures trading an hour later. U.S. financial markets are closed Thursday for the Independence Day holiday.
The Nasdaq 100 was led by Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC), reportedly in talks to sell out to Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), after reporting strong second-quarter sales, and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX).
The rally was aided by another fall in interest rates. The United States 10-Year yield fell to 1.95% from Tuesday's 1.976%. The yield has fallen 27% this year as investors have worried about slowing global and domestic economic growth.
According to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitoring Tool, investors are betting that the Federal Reserve will cut its key federal funds rate at its July 30-31 from 2.25%-2.5% to 2%-2.25%. Another rate cut would come in September.
To underscore that concern about the state of the economy. the ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) National Employment Report showed private-sector growth adding 102,000 jobs in June, compared with a forecast of 140,000 jobs from economists surveyed by Investing.com.
The Labor Department will issue its big June report before Friday's market open. Economists surveyed by Investing.com expected the economy added 160,000 non-farm jobs in June, after a disappointing May report showed only 75,000 jobs created.
Crude oil and gold all moved higher. Crude Oil WTI Futures settled up $1.09 to $57.34 a barrel. Brent crude for September delivery finished up $1.42 to $63.82. Gold futures added $12.90 to $1,420.90 an ounce in New York.