The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose for the eighth consecutive trading session Wednesday, as the blue-chip index appears on its way to its longest winning streak in four years, with good vibes aplenty on Wall Street as earnings season gets off to a strong start and concerns about a more aggressive than expected Federal Reserve subside.
Long investors have plenty of reasons to rejoice this month.
Following a 170-point, or 0.5%, rally by early afternoon, the Dow is on pace to gain for eight straight days for the first time since September 4-13, 2019.
The Dow has jumped 4.1% during the historic stretch beginning last Monday, which is actually just the 78th-best eight-day period since the beginning of 2019.
The steady, modest gains speak to a broad sense of faith in equities and a sharp decline in fluctuation for stock prices which became customary in recent years.
Considered the stock market’s “fear gauge,” the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is down more than 40% this year to its lowest level since early 2020.
A Bank of America survey of large fund managers released Wednesday revealed institutional investor respondents are the most bullish on corporate profit outlooks they’ve been since last February.
The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq are up 4% and T5% since last Monday, respectively. More than three-quarters of stocks listed on the S&P are up over the stretch, according to FactSet data. Financial services companies like KeyCorp and Charles Schwab, up more than 13% apiece, are the six best performers on the S&P during the stretch as banks reported earnings which largely exceeded expectations over the last week.
The proportion of non-institutional investors held in stocks rose to a 13-month high last month, according to the American Association of Individual Investors.
The Dow’s longest-ever winning streak came in January 1987, when the index rose 13 straight days a few months before the most significant crash since the Great Depression. The Dow, which consists of 30 of the most valuable American public companies, will need to navigate a busy earnings season for its constituents, with Travelers, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and American Express set to report quarterly results this week.
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