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Dow readies assault on 19,000 milestone

Dow 19,000 has a nice ring to it. And the iconic blue chip gauge is edging ever closer to that milestone.

After Monday’s record-breaking day, when the Dow Jones industrial average, large-company Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, tech-dominated Nasdaq composite and the small-cap Russell 2000 all closed at record levels at the same time for the first time since Dec. 31, 1999, the Dow is on the verge of making more headlines and getting a mention on the evening news.

The Dow kicks off Tuesday’s trading session less than 45 points, or 0.2%, away from cracking the 19,000 barrier.

The assault on Dow 19,000 has taken nearly two years, or almost 700 days, since it took out the 18,000 barrier on Dec. 23, 2014. It is on track for its slowest climb from one 1,000-point level to the next since the nearly six years it took the Dow to climb from 14,000 in July 2007 to 15,000 in May 2013. (That long drought, of course, coincided with the Great Recession and the worst stock market decline since the Great Depression.)

Dow 19,000 is the latest signal the rally sparked by Donald Trump’s surprise presidential election win is broadening as investors continue to bet on the prospects for a more businessfriendly administration.

Whether the bullish hype turns out to be the right trade remains to be seen, as Trump has yet to get the keys to the White House or make one of his campaign promises come true.