The stock market neared all-time highs on Monday as investors cheered a new trade deal to replace NAFTA that the US clinched with Canada…
The stock market neared all-time highs on Monday as investors cheered a new trade deal to replace NAFTA that the US clinched with Canada and Mexico over the weekend.
The S&P 500, a broad index of US companies, hit an intraday high of 2,937.06. That’s just short of the all-time intraday high of 2,940.91 that was set on Sept. 21, but ahead of the S&P’s record closing price of 2930.75 set a day earlier on Sept. 20.
The Dow Jones industrial average, meanwhile, rose 203 points to 26,661.98, just below its all-time high of 26,769.16 on Sept. 21.
The Nasdaq index of technology stocks rose 45.5 points, to 7,673.01.
Investors pushed up the S&P as President Trump announced the new trade deal with Canada, the US’s largest trading partner, from the Rose Garden of the White House.
The agreement, officially called the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, appeared to be teetering last week, sending markets downward on uncertainty that the northern neighbor would meet the Sept. 30 deadline.
But by early Monday, Canada had agreed to open more of its dairy market to the US and to source more autos to labor in North America. In return, the US dropped a demand that special NAFTA courts be scrapped — a win for Canada.
The deal “preserves the trilateral nature of NAFTA, which reduces uncertainty in the region,” Bank of America wrote in a research note to clients. “At least some pent-up investment may be deployed as a result.”
The S&P index has surged about 9 percent this year, from 2,695.81 on Jan. 2.
