FINANCIAL MARKETS
NEW YORK—The last time the stock market had this long a winning streak, Twitter shares weren’t even a part of it yet. Yet another gain for stocks on Thursday sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 index higher for an eighth straight day, its longest winning streak since July 2013, which was months before Twitter shares started trading publicly. It’s the latest step higher for a market that’s methodically climbed to record after record for much of this year as both the economy and corporate profits have improved.
The S&P 500 rose 14.33 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,552.07. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 113.75, or 0.5 percent, to 22,775.39 and the Nasdaq composite rose 50.73, or 0.8 percent, to 6,585.36. All three indexes added to their records set a day earlier, again.
All those moves higher actually have some professional investors a bit nervous, because even the healthiest markets tend to have some sharp sell-offs from time to time. The last time the S&P 500 had a pullback of just 5 percent was more than a year ago. Encouraging reports on the economy have been helping stocks, and on Thursday they included a stronger-than-expected rebound in U.S. factory orders during August and a drop in the number of workers applying for unemployment benefits last week.
Friday’s report from the Labor Department on monthly job growth will likely show momentum in the opposite direction, with most economists forecasting a drop-off in hiring. But that’s mostly because of damage caused by recent hurricanes, which hopefully will be only temporary. Constellation Brands was close behind after it reported stronger earnings for the latest quarter and raised its forecast for upcoming profit. The company has been focusing on the higher end of the beer, wine and spirits markets. Its stock rose $8.07, or 4 percent, to $209.25. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.34 percent from 2.32 percent late Wednesday. Higher interest rates tend to help financial stocks on the expectation that banks will make bigger profits from lending, and financials in the S&P 500 rose 1 percent.
The dollar fell to 112.85 Japanese yen from 112.98 yen late Wednesday. The euro dipped to $1.1708 from $1.1764, and the British pound slipped to $1.3116 from $1.3250. In the commodities markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose 81 cents, or 1.6 percent, to settle at $50.79 per barrel. Brent crude, the standard for international oil prices, rose $1.20 to $57 per barrel.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 1 cent to $1.79 a gallon, wholesale gasoline rose 3 cents to $1.61 a gallon and natural gas fell 2 cents to $2.92 per 1,000 cubic feet.