Protests are dividing the US, a bitter spat over Hong Kong is brewing, a pandemic continues to rage worldwide — and the stock market is …
Protests are dividing the US, a bitter spat over Hong Kong is brewing, a pandemic continues to rage worldwide — and the stock market is surging.
The Dow Jones industrial average soared 527.24 points on Wednesday, or more than 2 percent, to close at 26,269.89, as Wall Street continued to shrug off spectacular images of looting and police clashes as racial tensions explode nationwide. It was the blue-chip index’s third straight day of gains this week, leaving it more than 900 points higher than its Friday close.
The Dow is now up more than 40 percent from the lows it hit in late March, when panic over the coronavirus sparked fears that the US economy was headed for its worst crisis since the Great Depression. It’s now just 12 percent below the all-time high of 29,951.42 it hit on Feb.12.
To be sure, Wednesday’s stock gains were driven partly by reports that the social unrest appeared to be ebbing as charges were upgraded against Minneapolis police officers in the killing of George Floyd.
Also, a Wednesday report showed private payrolls notched a narrower-than-expected drop last month.
Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial, points out that the stock market is perceived as a forward-looking metric, meaning it has already begun trading on the assumed economic bounce-back from the pandemic as things continue to reopen.
