Small firms make big gains
Business investment climbs, while the Russell 2000 index sees its largest jump since March.
U.S. stocks climbed Wednesday as smaller companies soared following a report that showed business investment climbed in August. Investors also hoped stocks will benefit from tax cuts proposed by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.
The Labor Department said orders for longlasting manufactured goods rose, and a gauge of business investment climbed for the second month in a row. Investors hope that means U.S. manufacturing is getting stronger as the global economy continues to improve, and they bet on continued growth: technology companies rallied for a second day, while the prices of traditionally safe investments like bonds and gold dropped.
“We’ve been waiting for that,” said Kate Warne, an investment strategist for Edward Jones, of the recent improvement. “Business spending has been relatively weak,” with spending by consumers keeping the economy afloat.
Smaller, domestically-focused banks and technology and industrial firms made especially large gains, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks made its biggest gain since March. The tax proposal was similar to what investors had come to expect, and with months of negotiations likely ahead and key details missing, it’s not clear what kind of plan might ultimately pass. But lower corporate taxes could help smaller companies more than large ones.
“A corporate tax cut tends to be better news for smaller companies because they don’t have as many ways to reduce their tax rate,” said Warne.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 10.20 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,507.04. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 56.39 points, or 0.3 percent, to 22,340.71. The Nasdaq composite leaped 73.10 points, or 1.1 percent, to 6,453.26.
The Russell 2000 did even better and continued to set records. It gained 27.95 points, or 1.9 percent, to 1,484.81. After a sluggish few months, the Russell has jumped more than 9 percent since mid-August. The S&P mid-cap and small-cap indexes also climbed.
The Labor Department’s report gave investors hope the economy will keep growing, and Wall Street bet that interest rates will keep rising. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.30 percent from 2.24 percent. That helped banks, as higher interest rates mean they can charge more to lend money. Bank of America picked up 60 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $25.41 and Citigroup rose $1.34, or 1.9 percent, to $72.28.
Benchmark U.S. crude added 26 cents to $52.14 a barrel in New York while Brent crude, the standard for international oil prices, fell 54 cents, to $57.90 a barrel in London.