Wall Street: Dow Jones ends at fresh record

The Dow rocketed to a fresh record Friday, extending a post-election US equity rally while the euro retreated against the dollar following weak eurozone data.
The blue-chip index piled on one percent to end the day at 44,296.51, narrowly overtaking a record set earlier this month.
Major American indices have been at or near record territory since the US election, with investors betting that President-elect Donald Trump‘s program of tax cuts and regulatory scale-back would more than offset the drag from expected tariff increases.
“The trading most of this week has been influenced by the growth agenda,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital Management.
Market watchers have been cheered this week by a broadening of the rally beyond the tech names that dominated earlier in the year.
The dollar also continued to strengthen, reflecting less certainty about additional Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and the US currency’s status as a haven asset amid escalating tensions in the Russia-Ukraine war.
The euro was also battered by a closely watched survey showing contractions in November business activity in the eurozone.
The HCOB Flash Eurozone purchasing managers’ index (PMI) published by S&P Global dropped to 48.1 compared to 50.0 in October, the most marked rate of contraction in 10 months. Any reading above 50 indicates growth, while a figure below 50 shows contraction.
“Things could hardly have turned out much worse,” said Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank.
“The eurozone’s manufacturing sector is sinking deeper into recession, and now the services sector is starting to struggle after two months of marginal growth.”
But as the euro fell both Paris and Frankfurt stocks managed to recover their losses and advance.
“The eurozone data has increased the chance of more rate cuts from the ECB next year,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, as well a cut of 50 basis points next month.
“Investors have been jolted into recalibrating interest rate expectations on the back of this bleak economic news,” she added.
London managed to gain 1.4 percent despite data showing that retail sales figures for October undershot forecasts, as the pound fell against the dollar.
In Asia, Tokyo climbed as the government prepared to announce a $140 billion stimulus package to kickstart the country’s stuttering economy.
However, Hong Kong and Shanghai sank on a sell-off in tech firms caused by weak earnings from firms including Temu-owner PDD Holdings and internet giant Baidu.
Bitcoin set a new record high above $99,500 Friday, before easing back slightly.
The leading digital currency is expected to soon burst through $100,000 as investors grow increasingly hopeful that Trump will pass measures to deregulate the crypto sector.
Bitcoin has soared more than 40 percent since the Republican’s election victory this month and has more than doubled since the turn of the year.
The recent surge has also been “driven by news that Trump could set up an official crypto department that would sit in the heart of US government,” said XTB’s Brooks.