Dow’s 20K dance
Wall St. not sold on continued growth
Trump has built a wall, and it’s called Dow 20,000.
After pushing the index to within 0.37 points of the vaunted milestone, Wall Street is struggling to come up with a reason to break on through to the other side.
The Dow Jones industrial average index broke through the 19,900 barrier on Dec. 13, but has not been able to cross 20K despite some positive economic news.
On Monday, the blue chip index fell 76.42 points, to 19,887.38.
On Friday, it reached an intraday high of 19,999.63 before retreating at the end of trading.
It appeared that highfrequency traders, who use algorithms to make investment decisions, were programming their computers to sell when the market approached 20K, multiple traders told The Post.
“These algorithms can tease and tease,” one trader told The Post.
He said he has witnessed numerous times sell or- ders come in from more sophisticated investors just under his sell price.
Meanwhile, there is a growing chorus of voices from Wall Street veterans playing down the significance of the 20K plateau.
On Monday, influential investor Mohamed ElErian, the chief economic adviser for Allianz, dismissed Dow 20K as “the stuff of front-page headlines” and “a trending topic on social media.”
But others say that the barrier is a referendum on Trump — and markets could go either way.
“When expectations get really high, the chance for disappointment gets really high,” Jack Ablin, BMO Private Bank’s chief information officer, told The Post.
“We’re not going to buy it hook, line, and sinker until we get more details,” Paul Mortimer-Lee, global head of market economics at BNP Paribas, told The Post, of the Trump optimism.
“There are all those sorts of doubts floating around,” he added. “People are saying, ‘Let’s see the beef now.’ ”