Austin American-Statesman

Dow hits high for 12th time; streak is longest in 30 years

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Wall Street notched another set of milestones Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high for the 12th consecutiv­e time, the longest winning streak for the 30-company average in 30 years.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the benchmark favored by profession­al investors, also closed at a record high.

The latest push into the record books came on an indecisive day for U.S. stocks that sent indexes wavering between small gains and losses for much of the day. They ultimately eked out tiny gains, led by energy stocks, which climbed as the price of crude oil rose.

Many investors were taking a wait-and-see approach ahead of President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday, hoping for details of promised tax cuts, infrastruc­ture spending and other business-friendly policies.

“It’s all about policy now,” said Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management. “There’s only so much the market can deliver when there’s still these many unknowns; specifical­ly, the Washington impact is now as much a head wind as it is a tail wind.”

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 15.68 points, or 0.1 percent, to 20,837.44. The S&P 500 gained 2.41 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,369.75. The Nasdaq composite index added 16.59 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,861.90. Small-company stocks fared better than the other indexes, sending the Russell 2000 index up 13.44 points, or 1 percent, to 1,407.97.

The last time the Dow posted a longer winning streak was in early January 1987, when the average rose for 13 days in a row. That streak translated into a gain of 11 percent for the Dow. Nine months later, on Oct. 19, 1987, the Dow plummeted more than 500 points, or about 22 percent, on what became known as Black Monday.

Just because the Dow is on another lengthy winning streak doesn’t mean a similar market slump is in the cards now, noted Ryan Detrick, a senior market strategist for LPL Financial.

One key difference is that the Dow went on to gain another 30 percent in the months after the 13-day streak in January 1987. By comparison, the Dow is now up about 5.4 percent this year, so there’s a long way to go before the market becomes as stretched as it was 30 years ago, Detrick said.

“That isn’t to say a normal correction after the big surge since the U.S. election isn’t possible, it is, but a major bear market correction is still something we’d call a low percentage scenario right now,” he said.

U.S. stocks have benefited from the Trump administra­tion’s promise of pro-business changes, but investors have become uneasy over how large and rapid those changes will be.

Trump noted Monday that his upcoming budget would include a big boost to defense spending. The White House separately said that the budget would include a $54 billion increase in defense spending while imposing correspond­ing cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid.

Talk of more defense spending gave a lift to defense contractor­s Monday. Raytheon added $1.35, or 0.9 percent, to $154.83. Northrop Grumman gained $3.55, or 1.4 percent, to $248.60. Lockheed Martin climbed $5.18, or 2 percent, to $269.36. ing, that we no longer find the necessary time to interact with each other,” said Park, CEO of the company Circulus.

Enter Pibo, the friendly dinner table ice-breaker.

Pibo is a charming little robot whose goal is to get you and your loved ones sharing your daily life more. “Are you tired?” he asks. “I will play music without boredom.”

Sure, he still needs to hone his English, but he’s always eager to ask about your day or provide updates on weather conditions.

Still a prototype, Pibo comes in a case, should you wish to take him along on vacation. He is, after all, a member of the family —for an expected $490 a pop.

Just add water

Growing your own veggies may become possible even for urbanites with tiny studio apartments.

Israeli startup Living Box offers a modular, unfoldable, solar-powered little greenhouse that you can use to harvest anything from tomatoes to tea and herbs.

“We have a slow-release water system for irrigation, with a novel liquid nutrient solution and bacteria to avoid the use of pesticides, as well as an app prototype updating weather conditions and other relevant data right to your smartphone, so you don’t have to monitor it,” explained Nitzan Solan, CEO of the company.

The idea was to create a sustainabl­e, affordable and simple mobile farming system that could be operated by anyone around the globe.

As of now, Living Box is testing in 50 sites around Israel, the U.S. and Nigeria, and aims to try locations in Spain and Fiji. It is expected to carry a market price of $300.

Cool hang

The hang, a metal percussion instrument shaped like a flying saucer, is beloved by street performers the world over and often associated with meditation practices like yoga. Now it comes in a fully digital version.

When delicately tapped, the Oval can reproduce the sounds of a hang as well as other instrument­s, including drums, trumpets and even violins.

Musicians Ravid Goldschmid­t and Alex Posada, the co-founders of the Spanish startup that makes the Oval, say they sought to start a “revolution of percussion” with this instrument.

Already on the market, the Oval is aimed at all kinds of consumers, with about 40 percent estimated to be amateur or profession­al musicians.

It goes for about $950.

To see or not to see

Samsung’s Relumino headset aims to do nothing less than help the blind see.

The gadget, shaped like virtual reality glasses, recasts images of the world in a way that someone with vision problems can see more clearly.

The glasses are still in a developmen­tal stage and, although it’s still too early to venture a market price for them, Samsung Senior Engineer Junghoon Cho hopes to compete with other more expensive visual aids out there.

Besides correcting blurred images, the headset can eliminate blind spots and improve peripheral vision.

“If we make our own project, people who are visually impaired can walk outside using our glasses . ... We want to help them have a better social relationsh­ip with other people,” Cho said.

Shopping vision

Worried that the new couch might not squeeze through door?

Sri Lanka-based startup Liveroom is trying to solve your angst. The company’s virtual reality technology aims to give shoppers a live look at how products in online stores would fit into your home.

This is how it works: You shoot an image of the space in question via a liveview button and then consult the catalog on the app for the item you want. The item will pop up on your tablet or smartphone set in the image of your home. You can move and rotate the item and change its colors, fabric and material.

“If you’re buying online, via e-commerce, you have only images. You have to visualize the product in your mind and maybe the dimensions and the colors are wrong,” said founder and CTO Sameera Nilupul. “With this technology, you can see exactly how the products look in your own home.”

 ?? EMILIO MORENATTI / ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Visitors look at vegetables growing at Living Box, a mobile farming system developed in Israel, at the Four Years From Now show, one of the attraction­s at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
EMILIO MORENATTI / ASSOCIATED PRESS Visitors look at vegetables growing at Living Box, a mobile farming system developed in Israel, at the Four Years From Now show, one of the attraction­s at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

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